


When You Send a Cat to Arkham

by SweetDeceit



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Arkham Asylum (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Mentions of Rape, Prison, Riot - Freeform, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 19:03:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1910235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetDeceit/pseuds/SweetDeceit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a bad gamble, Selina finds herself in trouble with a mob boss, and when a certain caped crusader gets in the way she ends up in Arkham Asylum. But what will happen when Joker takes over Arkham? Will Selina survive the night when every lunatic, murderer, and psychopath is loose? What happens when you send a cat to Arkham? Bat/Cat, based off of Arkham Asylum! Please R&R!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Bad Gamble

_**Author's Note: Okay so this is my first Batman fic and I'm not terribly great at beginnings so this might be a little shaky. I don't own Batman or anything.** _

_**As the summary said, Catwoman will go to Arkham in this fic; when I played Arkham Asylum and then later Arkham City it made me wonder what it would be like if Catwoman was there when Joker took over Arkham and this is based mostly on that, though I'm going to change the plot so it's not just playing the game again.** _

_**I'm not going to write with the Arkham City catwoman in mind because in my opinion her lines were too...cheesy, I'm sad to say. :(** _

_**Anyway so yeah, enjoy :)** _

* * *

On any weeknight the Iceberg Lounge was one of the most extravagant, luxurious- not to mention _pricey_ \- hot spots for the elites of the richest part of Gotham, better known as the North side. The Lounge was one of the top restaurants in Gotham, the food was top-notch, the drinks were aplenty, and the atmosphere was quite alluring.

With tables scattered all around the circular-shaped lounge and a section in the back with secluded booths for the VIPs like Vikki Vale, Bruce Wayne, and all the other biggest names in Gotham. A massive icicle-themed chandelier illuminated the ceiling in cool light, though below it was still rather dark. The tables were set with fine silverware along with small ice sculptures that were

All-in-all, the Iceberg was a damn fine place to go, with its scenery and live jazz band, but the thing that made it really stand out from other places was the massive iceberg in the middle of the place, along with the three penguins which lived inside the little enclosure. No one ever knew how the owner of the Iceberg, Oswald Cobblepot, was allowed to keep the little guys inside a five-star dining establishment, but they were a crowd favorite. They were so popular in fact the regulars nicknamed the three amigos Tom, Lou, and Rick.

Yet while the weeknights might've brought in the money bags of Gotham, the weekends brought in a whole different crowd.

Because on weekends, the Iceberg was seamlessly transformed into the most prominent night club of Gotham.

The tables are moved to the sides to make room for the dance floor on one half of the place, lights are popped out of hidden compartments in the walls, and the classy wooden panels on the bar are pulled off to reveal the stainless steel beneath. Neon lights are set up behind the bar and along with the lights that shift over the dance floor, the iceberg in the center is illuminated to make the lounge look more like a winter wonderland than Gotham ever was outside of the club.

Now Oswald Cobblepot in the eyes of everyday citizens might've seemed like just an average businessman, maybe a little short but they come in all shapes in Gotham. As for Cobblepot being an average businessman, well, that wasn't terribly far from the truth, at least not by Gotham's standards. He had a past –and he took every opportunity to emphasize _past_ \- which included cheating on federal taxes, grand theft, smuggling, a couple accounts of attempted murder; the list was a bit too long to go through in a casual conversation.

And yet, he only served a year in Arkham.

A socialite getting out of prison with putting hardly any time in.

Imagine that.

But ever since Cobblepot was released he seemed keen on staying out, turned his former base of operations into the lounge and became a fully functioning, beneficial member of society. Or at least to anyone else he would seem that way.

Now while people like Vicki Vale and Bruce Wayne were given special access to the lounge- Cobblepot knew who his friends were. Or, at least those who could be the closest things to his 'friends'. The rogues were all given permission to enter the lounge- but only on the weekends- wouldn't want them scaring away the _real_ money now.

Cobblepot had a couple reasons for this- for one it was smart business; the rogues would come and go on a regular basis, and should he ever need one of the rogue's services, well it wouldn't be suspicious for them to be found in his club and couldn't be linked back to him 'beyond a reasonable doubt'.

Secondly, it allowed Cobblepot to keep tabs on his fellow rogues; who was talking to who, who was a no-show and if the newspaper said "Famous Egyptian Cat Statue Stolen" well, he'd know what they'd been up to last night.

But it wasn't like all the rogues liked coming to the lounge; those like Harvey and Ivy, who had physical…dilemmas, simply couldn't come out that much. Ivy would come out on some nights when Harley dragged her to the lounge, and for the most part she was safe under the colored lights and darkness of the place.

There were some nights –though very few- that most rogues could be found at the lounge.

And tonight was one of those nights.

Cobblepot sat in his office, high above the loud music, dancing, and drinking taking place below. He looked out over his little kingdom from behind a one way mirror that only a select few knew about. From here he could see Harley and Ivy dancing together on the dance floor, Edward Nygma sitting and drinking rather solemnly at the bar, and Jonathan Crane sitting alone at a table in the far back of the club where there was hardly any light.

That made four. Four rogues tonight.

Cobblepot lay back against the leather couch as he sipped on his whiskey, his eyes were fixed on the bar as green paper flowed in to the bartenders. His eyes were drawn to the entrance as a black haired woman stepped into the club.

She stood there for a moment, her deep green eyes raked through the crowd quickly. She wore a strapless skin tight burgundy dress that ended around mid-thigh. A black leather jacket covered her torso, but Cobblepot had seen her enough times-in just as tight leather- to know what dangerous curves lay beneath.

Make that five rogues on the night.

Cobblepot watched none other than Selina Kyle – known among the newspapers and rogues as Catwoman- as she weaved through the crowd and made her way to the backrooms Cobblepot would rent out to the Falcones when they had business that needed to be done on neutral territory. Business that rarely included a rogue.

The official definition of a 'rogue' in Gotham was a criminal that was blacklisted, at the top of the wanted list of the GCPD. Though Selina wasn't blacklisted yet, she made sure that her thefts were spaced out well enough to keep herself off the radar.

Selina approached the backrooms, a bouncer stood before the large black door with his muscled arms folded over his solid chest. He eyed her up as he spoke over the loud music, "Can I help you, miss?" he asked with a lusty smirk.

At least he appreciated her outfit for tonight; she'd spent an hour perfecting her smoky eye shadow and trying to figure out whether Carmine Falcone would appreciate leopard or plain black stilettos more. Normally, she couldn't give less of a damn about what he thought, but normally she wasn't about to tell a crime boss that she's lost his money in a faulty stock turnout.

"Carmine's expecting me; tell him Cat's here to see him." The bouncer quirked an eyebrow up, but said nothing before bringing his hand up to his ear and speaking into an earpiece. Selina just watched as he turned to face away as he spoke into the piece, she roamed her eyes over his muscles that seemed to bulge out from the short sleeves of his black T-shirt. She noticed small puncture marks on his arm and wondered how many different types of steroids he was on.

"Alright," he said when he turned back around, "you're clear, just watch yourself." Selina smiled as he held open the door for her and she stepped inside.

Four men sat around a poker table; all were wearing unbuttoned dress shirts and suit jackets, and all of them were smoking a cigar. The smoke billowed up toward the stain glass lamp that swayed slightly above them; a window on the far side of the room bathed all of them in neon lights.

"-So I told him 'you either disappear,'" one man said as he laid a card down on the table, "'or I send my boys out after you, clean and simple.'" The cigar prevented him from closing his mouth entirely, causing him to have a bit of a lisp.

"Hmm," Carmine said when he noticed Selina as she came into the light, "I half hope the bastard doesn't leave," he said as he tapped the end of his cigar in the ashtray to his right, "boys, you'll have to excuse us," the other three men turned and took note of Selina, their gazes lingered appreciatively as she slid her jacket off slowly, _purposefully_ , - she knew how to play it- they all stood and filed into the room next door, leaving Selina and Carmine alone.

Carmine was an older man- in his late fifties or early sixties and he was always well groomed, never a hair out of place or a missed patch of stubble to be found- he was spry enough to do some of the dirty work of his business, but these days he was mainly just the decision maker. His word was law and that's just how it was. If Carmine said he wanted someone dead, they'd usually turn up within 24 hours and a missing persons search would turn into a homicide investigation.

But nothing would ever be tied back to Carmine. There was a reason they called him 'The Roman'; he had his empire organized, and he knew who to pay off and who to eliminate to keep things spinning.

"Sit down, kitty," she hated that nickname, she'd only tolerate it tonight to stay on his good side, "want a Cuban?" he asked as he pushed a mahogany box across the table towards her.

She slipped her jacket over the chair across from him and sat, "No thanks," she said with a polite smile, "I'm trying to quit." He gave a small nod before tossing his cigar into the sash tray and reaching for another. Her head began to throb slightly from the smoke that was still in the air, "So tell me, Roman," she said with a purr as she leaned her chin on her hand trying to act interested, "how's business?"

His eyes dipped from her eyes for just a second, and he flashed a smile as he turned back to light his cigar.

"Ah, never mind about my business," he said as he raised the cigar to his lips and lit the end with a lighter he pulled from his pocket, "I'm more interested in _yours_ ;" Selina sighed inwardly, "tell me, how did our little stock venture turn out?"

Selina rubbed her red lips over each other before answering, "Not as well as I'd hoped." She said in a bitter tone as she looked down at the unfinished card game in the table. She noticed one card's corner had been folded and wondered which man was the cheater of the bunch.

"Meaning?" Carmine prodded in an even tone, as if he expected her answer.

Selina's eyes narrowed as Carmine sat back in his chair, his arms folded over his chest while smoke slipped from his mouth.

" _Meaning_ ," Selina began, "it didn't payout; the stocks plummeted as soon as the market opened."

This was not a position Selina had ever imagined herself being in. Yes, she'd made a gamble on a stock- something she rarely did- and yes, she'd gotten some extra money to invest from Carmine, and yes, it'd all gone to hell. She normally never took chances when it came to money, especially when it came to the _mob's_ money. She always plotted out her moves, did her research, and all that jazz. But she'd seen an opportunity, a chance at a bigger catch, so she'd asked Carmine for some extra money.

She'd had enough money to invest to make off with a pretty penny –if the stocks had turned out as she was promised- but she wasn't after just another couple months' rent; she wanted a ticket out of Gotham. For good.

Hopefully somewhere in the tropics.

And so, seeing an easy catch- max turnout of eight million- she'd gone to Falcone for a quick loan of three million, which she added to her one and a half for a grand total of 4.5 mil.

If she hadn't renovated her apartment she would've had enough to invest a similarly large sum all on her own. She would've lost all of it, but in the least it would've been _hers_ to lose. This time she'd only done the math. Had the stocks gone how she thought they would, she would've been in paradise by now. But it'd all gone to shit in a bitchy turn of fate.

The stock had an estimated payback that would nearly double her money, enough to pay back Falcone, get a plane ticket and a nice piece of land in….Hawaii? Maybe somewhere in the Caribbean, she hadn't decided yet, it didn't really matter either, as long as she was somewhere warm and worry-free, she'd be in paradise.

But that little dream came to an end when the opening bell rang in the stock market office. People buzzed around the office below as the investors watched in the lounges above the floor. Selina had sat in a black leather chair, martini in hand, waiting for the opening bell.

When it finally did ring, she leaned back against the cool leather of the chair and watched as the numbers plummeted. A tiny curve came to her lips as she raised the glass to her lips, "Well, shit." To every other investor there, she looked as if she was watching paint dry. While all the other investors sat with their nails between their teeth, Selina only watched calmly as the money flowed down the drain.

And so here she was, asking Falcone for more time as countless junkies and unlucky gamblers had done before her, and as they will continuously do after her.

"That's a shame , but you promised me my money paid back in full tonight and by the looks 'a things," he took a moment to look her up and down before leaning forward in his chair and bringing his hands to rest on the green felt of the table top, "you don't have my money for me."

Selina closed her eyes for a moment in anticipation of where this conversation was headed, "So now you and I have a bit of a dilemma." Selina's emerald green eyes stared back at Falcone's pale blue ones for a long moment.

Before he could begin his usual threats, Selina spoke, "You know I can get your money for you." She said flatly as she stood and paced to look out the window at Gotham's night scene.

"I hear that a lot, Selina, and it's rarely true." The light overhead casted dark shadows over Carmine's eyes, making him seem all the more imposing, though Selina still wasn't scared. She was worth more to him alive than she'd ever be dead.

Selina watched the people in line outside the club as they shifted angrily on their heels; brightly colored lights casted down on them, bathing them all in Gotham's greedy light. Neon lights in this city would promise you anything you wanted- tattoos, liquor, palm readings, hell, even sex was on the menu.

"I hate doing this to you, kitty, but I'm gonna need to make some profit from this. I can't have every bum from here to the East end in here asking for a loan they can't pay back in a reasonable amount of time. I'd go broke waiting for my money to stumble in."

After a few moments of waiting, Selina spoke the words he was waiting for, "How much?"

Selina could see the smile spread across his face, even without turning around. "Five should do."

Selina spun around, not bothering to hide the anger on her face, "Five million?" she said in disbelief, her eyebrows forming angry arches as Falcone shrugged.

"You borrowed three, told me you'd have it back by tonight- which you _don't_ \- and expect me to just take it with no profit? Selina, babe, how could I keep my family fed with business like that?" Selina stood with her arms crossed as Carmine continued, "Three for what you borrowed, one for profit," he said as he slipped his cigar into his fingers and tapped it against the ashtray, "one for interest."

"Fine." Is all Selina said as she strode across the room, her heels tapping as she took each hurried step, and snatched her jacket from the back of the chair and slipped it on as she turned to leave. Her fingers had barley brushed against the door when Carmine decided to raise the stakes.

"One week." Selina stopped dead.

"Excuse me?" she asked in disbelief, turning her head slightly.

"I made deals on that money; my business won't wait just 'cuz you got caught in a bad spot." Selina clenched her fist at her side as he repeated in a smug tone, "One week." Selina slammed the door open and made her way across the dance floor towards the entrance of the lounge.

People around her danced to the music, their bodies swaying and pulsing to the music. A couple years ago, she could be found here nearly every weekend, wasting her money on booze and looking for a new, exciting face to take home with her.

She used to party all night and sleep all day, living on the money she'd steal from small time jewelry store robberies; simple things like diamonds and pearls. But that life got old fast.

In three months' time she'd be twenty five, and she'd grown up. Instead of spending her money on partying she donated it around to different charities; one for the preservation of big cats in both the wild and in captivity, and one for cleaning up the East End of the scum that was there when she was growing up.

She doubted the East End would ever be cleaned up, but it's not like she needed the money, so why the hell not? If they want to take on mission impossible then who was she to say no?

Selina made her way across the floor and moved past the bouncers to the outside of the club. It was summer in Gotham but the night air was chilly tonight, and cars that raced by on the street made a fierce breeze that sent shivers up her legs, even with her jacket on.

The club-goers waiting in line hummed in frustration, Selina strode past them and inwardly bet that half of them wouldn't even make it in. But she had more important things to worry about.

She made her way quickly down Gotham's streets, taking shortcuts she knew about and finding herself in the grand lobby of her apartment building in no time. Hugh the doorman held open a large glass door for her, "Thanks, Hugh." She said sweetly as she took a step inside onto the cream colored marble floor.

Her heels clicked on the marble, sending an echo throughout the lobby that alerted Mark at the head desk of her presence, "Welcome home, Miss Kyle." He said with a smile and a nod.

She just gave him a smile that felt very forced on her face, but he couldn't notice her anxiousness, she'd spent years perfecting the art of letting people see only what she wanted them to see.

She made it to the elevator and stepped inside. The speakers played some jazzy instrumental version of "The Way You Look Tonight" as Selina hit the button and folded her arms across her chest in thought.

Five million in one week. She could definitely pull it off, that much was certain. But there were complications to it. Stealing that much that quick, well, the GCPD would be all over her ass in nothing flat. She might be put on the blacklist, and that would just make everything hell for her.

The rogues were always a top priority, if they weren't in Arkham, they were being hunted. And if they were in Arkham, they were being examined, documented, _studied_.

Selina refused to be part of that. If she stole lots of small time pieces, they might not put it all together; she could fetch little things and that would have to do. She couldn't risk being put on the rogues list.

The elevator opened up suddenly, revealing a long hallway with a glass ceiling that let the moonlight shine down. At the end of the hallway was her front door, she quickly pulled out her key from her coat pocket and unlocked it easily.

Inside the smell of drywall reminded her of the renovations to the kitchen and living room she'd just had done. The kitchen looked more like something from Better Homes and Gardens magazine with a new breakfast bar, granite counter top and even a small chandelier that hang overhead.

"Holly, I'm home!" in a halfhearted voice. In a moment, Holly Robinson was standing in front of Selina, her grey eyes wide with questions.

"Well? How did it go? What did he say?" Selina sighed as she slid off her coat, shut the door behind her and slipped by Holly into the kitchen where the scent of spaghetti filled her nose.

"Not great, he's not thrilled about his money..." Holly followed behind Selina closely, pulling at her light brown hair nervously as Selina continued, "he wants five million back."

She said in a huff as she walked to the stove and looked into the pot Holly had the spaghetti sauce sitting in, Selina turned and reached up into a cabinet and grabbed a bowl before turning back and tossing some spaghetti noodles into it and adding a splash of the sauce.

"Well that's not that bad." Holly said with a smile.

Holly in a lot of ways idolized Selina- and it wasn't just because she'd taken her in when she was seventeen so she wouldn't have to go into prostitution on the streets- it was because Selina was so determined, so self-reliant; Holly wished she could be just like Selina, but she realized she was nowhere near her. Holly was shy, timid, soft-spoken - if she ever spoke at all- she was only herself around Selina. Anywhere else and she'd just fade into the background.

Selina and Holly had an arrangement from when Selina first brought her home; Selina would let Holly live with her so long as Holly continued going to school, brought home straight A's, then continued into college –which Selina would help pay for- as long as Holly stayed out of trouble and earned her keep in good grades and hard work.

Holly was now twenty and entering her Junior year at Gotham University when summer ends. She couldn't imagine her life of Selina hadn't saved her from the streets when her parents died in a car crash. She'd had no one and if it wasn't for her…. Holly didn't like to think about it much.

"Yeah but there's one problem," Selina began as she grabbed a fork and started twirling the spaghetti around the metal points, "I have one week." She said before taking a bite. Holly's mouth fell open as she walked further into the kitchen and leaned on the counter.

"What?" she asked in disbelief. Selina just nodded and grabbed a bottle of wine from the chiller and slid a glass from the wine glass rack. She poured as Holly stammered, her eyes looking down at the counter in worry.

"What're you going to do?" Holly finally asked as Selina took a sip and held the glass out in her hand, as if pondering the question.

"What I always do, sweetheart." She said as she returned to her bowl of spaghetti on the counter and twirled another knot of noodles around her fork.


	2. All  Rogues Go To Arkham

_**Author's Note: My apologies for any grammar errors, I really hate editing.** _

_**Also I'm sorry for the lack of dialogue, that'll change in the next couple of chapters as we get more in depth into what's happening at the time and less about what will/has happened.** _

_**I feel like most people have most of the background knowledge of the Batman universe down and I don't like repeating things people already know, so some parts of this story might require some background knowledge such as who each of the rogues are but nothing major.** _

* * *

"So what is it you're after again?" Holly asked as she watched Selina pull on her thigh high dark purple boots. Selina stood from her bed and wrapped her whip around her hips, pulling the end tightly and letting the end hang like a tail from her back.

"The Egyptian headpiece, remember?" Selina said with a hint of irritation. She knew Holly remembered, and she knew where the conversation was going.

"Right, right, the one that's in the most secure section of the museum. The one that has too many cameras on it to get away without any video evidence. The one that's worth roughly fourteen-"

"Fifteen," Selina corrected. She knew just the right person who'd buy the headpiece, and she knew she could get at least that much.

"Right," Holly continued as Selina walked past her out into the living room of their apartment. "Fifteen million dollars?"

"That's the one." Selina said as she pulled her hair through the opening in the back of her cowl and pulled her mask over her face, making sure tuck the stray hairs out of her face. Selina grabbed her 'loot bag' and slipped it over her arms and onto her back.

"I thought you wanted to make a few _small hits_ …? What happened to 'keeping a low profile to avoid much attention'? And you know once those cameras get a glimpse of you, you'll be all over the news again."

"Holly, relax, I used to pull of hits worth triple this one." Selina stopped in the bathroom and rubbed some chapstick over her lips; a trick she picked up to stop herself from biting her lips when she was working or stressed.

"Uh huh, and tell, me, why ever did you stop that?" Selina rubbed her lips together and rolled her eyes. Holly knew too much about her.

She sighed and stood up straight, Holly looked at her with her arms folded and a 'got you' smile. "Because," Selina began begrudgingly, "he was getting too close." Selina pushed by Holly again and made her way toward the terrace doors.

After a couple years of living off of small time jewelry store heists, Selina began to go after big hits for a challenge. After she proved to herself she could pull big name heists off, she kept it up, but not for the same reason she started. She was curious, she'd seen Batman's name in all the newspapers; how he caught the joker over and over again, how he foiled Riddler's plans, and how he'd stopped Ivy from turning Gotham city hall into a big, grand flower shop.

But she'd never seen him for herself. So she;d kept hitting the obvious targets, just waiting for him to show. And when he finally did, she wanted to see him again. And again. She liked playing with him, and him chasing her gave her a thrill she couldn't get anywhere else.

The dark vibes, swaying bodies, and intriguing strangers of the Iceberg lounge on the weekends stopped exciting her after. He ruined that for her. He made everything else in comparison dull, and she wanted that rush of adrenaline, she needed it.

She loved playing with him and loved how she could steal a kiss or two some nights, make him lose himself for a few, bliss filled moments. She loved the idea that at the end of the day, at least around her, Batman was a man. And she knew men well.

But then, one night, he ruined yet another thing for her - the chase.

She'd gotten caught, a not so rare occurrence seeing as how the two were pretty evenly matched, and he had her pinned up against a brick wall on the rooftop of a sleazy rent by the hour motel. She'd smiled up at him as he glared down at her, her lips pulled into that tantalizing cat grin, taunting him as always. In a lusty hum she'd leaned in to his ear and asked, "Will that be a half hour, or an hour?" Whether she was serious, making a stab at his ability in the bedroom, or just playing another game with him, he didn't much care. Everything about her was enticing, and here she was, right in front of him, his for the taking.

She was shocked when he was the one to lean in and close the gap between them, and even more surprised by the severity behind the kiss. His lips smashed against hers, and she was drawn back for a moment, but she quickly melted into the kiss, and allowed him to take control for once.

By the time he pulled away, they were both out of breath worse than during the chase. He let his forehead rest against hers for a minute while they caught their breath. As Selina leaned in for another kiss, Batman spoke, "Why do you keep doing this, Selina?"

All of a sudden, something in her shattered, and the moment was over. He knew who she was. Panic swept through her and she hooked her leg around his and drove her knee into his groin, sending him to the ground. She took off running without looking back.

He'd gotten too close; he knew her name and who knows what else he could dig up on her. She stopped making big hits; she just couldn't risk it again. Next time she might not get so lucky. He might change his mind, throw her in prison and be done with it. So she contented herself to small, precise, less risky jobs. They might be boring, but she made her living and stayed concealed from the major media.

"So you're still going?" Holly asked in a mix of anger and confusion.

"I have to, Holl, there's not much else I can do." Selina grabbed the terrace door's handle and flung it open, letting the hot, stuffy air of Gotham's summer night in.

"You could do what we talked about." Holly quipped back.

"I'd rather just make one hit and be done with this, wouldn't you?" Selina didn't wait for Holly's answer, she stepped out onto the terrace and flicked her fingers out, drawing the razor claws out of their sheathes in her gloves. She turned toward the building and used the grate panel she had hidden under some vines that led to the roof of the building.

Once on the roof, she could look down into her skylight and see Isis watching her from below. Selina blew Isis a kiss before uncurling her whip and taking off to the Gotham museum.

Holly was right, there was no way Selina would be able to disable all the cameras in the place, it just wasn't possible without spending forever hacking into the security system, which would involve first heading to the security room, taking out the guards and maybe taking a half hour or less to hack in.

That's too damn risky.

Then again, Selina's way wasn't better by any means. She'd break in, through one of her favorite vents, jump out, grab the headpiece, hop back in the vents -meanwhile the guard would have surely seen her on the cameras, and would then sound the alarm- make her way back out onto the roof and make a run for it and hope Batman has bigger fish to fry tonight.

As she swung from gargoyle to gargoyle on the old Gotham bell tower, she weighed her options. On one hand, it's more technical, precise, but more time consuming. If she made a single mistake getting to the security room she'd be too far from the headpiece to even try to get away cleanly.

On another, if she just grabbed the headpiece and run, She'd be right back in the headlines not to mention on the TV with the security footage. It'll be sloppy and hectic and possibly her worst heist yet. And being sloppy is exactly how she got in this mess in the first place.

Selina landed on the Gotham museum rooftop with a heavy sigh. She'd have to decide now, she couldn't hang around long trying to make up her mind. Thinking about seeing Batman again gave her mixed feelings of excitement and fear, and it seemed like no matter which way she picked, there was an equal chance he'd show up.

Selina slinked her way over to the vent that led down into the Egyptian exhibit wing. "Fuck it." She mumbled as she leaned down and shuffled the vent top off. She laughed to herself; good to know the maintenance workers never fixed the loose vent cover.

She lowered herself into the tight space and let herself fall straight down to the bottom of the shaft. Her landing was muffled by the thick, dusty walls of the museum, which saved her some time. She quickly crawled through the vents as they gradually got smaller the closer they got to the exhibit wing.

When she reached her mark, she peeked out of the vent and checked for a patrolling guard. When she saw no one, Selina pushed against the thin metal cover and caught it before it could crash against the marble floor of the museum.

She peeked out of the vent and caught a glimpse of her prize at the far end of the hall on a wax figure of what she thought to be Cleopatra. When she looked up on the walls, she saw at least seven cameras that would no doubt catch sight of her.

The news would have a field day with it.

She hadn't been on one of the major news stations since she'd stolen a Monet painting from this same museum. The footage showed her bending and twisting over and under laser sensors that were never able to slip her up, and she appreciated the attention she got for the heist.

Gotham's sleazy news show, GCZ, which mainly focused on the latest scandals of the well-known elites and their petty incidents, spent the better part of thirty minutes talking about her ass. She normally would've been annoyed by the publicity, but the thought that Batman might've watched them all practically drool on camera made her laugh.

But there were no laser sensors here, and she was grateful for it; she needed something quick and straight forward. Seeing that there was no way for her to make a clean getaway anyway, she'd decided it would be best to sprint down the hall, snatch the headpiece from the figure, stuff it into her bag, and sprint back to the vent and crawl her way out.

She took a deep breath and launched herself forward out of the vent; she'd figure she'd make it halfway down the hall before the guard monitoring the cameras caught sight of her and rang the alarm.

But when she was not a fourth of the way down, the alarm sounded and red security lights began flashing all round her. Behind her, a security gate began lowering itself down. She sprinted down the hall, her long legs carrying her as fast as ever.

As she approached the headpiece she slipped the bag off of her shoulders and ripped the mouth of it open before snatching the headpiece, stuffing it well inside the bag and replacing it on her back.

Selina knew there was a decent chance the bat would show up tonight, but she'd hoped Joker or Two-Face or a simple gang of thugs would keep him preoccupied tonight. But no such luck.

As it turned out, all the rogues were either in Arkham, or had gone underground.

And as for your average gang of thugs, well, that night was surprisingly quiet for a change, and so Batman was perched on a gargoyle tonight, just waiting for the sound of sirens or gunfire to ring out. Instead, he heard the Gotham museum's alarms screeching not a half mile from his location; a distance he could make up in no time flat.

So the first part of the cat's downfall was set into motion, with Batman racing towards the museum and Catwoman sliding under the gate just before it dropped onto the floor.

Within minutes she'd made it to the roof just as Batman landed not thirty feet from her. Catwoman cursed under her breath but wasted no time sprinting toward the edge of the roof and leaping off, with Batman right on her heels.

As he chased her she looked around frantically for anywhere she could hide; something she could duck behind or a sharp corner she could turn to lose him but all she saw was a blur of red, green and yellow off to the right, keeping pace with knew it was Robin, which just made everything more complicated than before. Robin began closing the distance to the right while she could feel Batman's boots hit the surface just behind her.

She couldn't keep this pace up forever, she doubted she could take the both of them in a fight; Batman would be completely focused with the baby bird running around so her usual tactic of distracting the bat and then taking off was out of the question.

At the edge of the roof they were on she, instead of simply leaping to the next one, pushed off into a backflip, which sent the bat rushing off under her towards the next rooftop, and her backwards a couple feet. Batman had made that mistake before with her; following too closely, only to be thrown off the trail when she'd made a quick turn or move to lose him. She liked to think it was his eagerness that always got the best of him. Like most men she encountered.

Batman had size, mass, and momentum, he couldn't stop on a dime like she could; but Robin was a different story.

During her first encounter with Robin he was just a kid, maybe thirteen or fourteen. He was small and easily outmatched. Now, he was at least seventeen, give or take, and he was quickly becoming a man. But he was still young, and in comparison to the Bat, still relatively undeveloped. He didn't have the same momentum, which made it easier for him to stop and change directions at a moment's notice.

So while Batman had leapt onto the next rooftop, Robin had managed to stop just in time to trip Catwoman up with his grapple gun as she took her first step in the opposite direction. She'd quickly severed the grapple cords but in an instant he was on her, trying to pin her hands to the rooftop. Reflexively, she launched her heels forward and into his gut, sending him flying over her- and over the edge of the building.

She rolled over in a panic and looked over the side of the building. She watched as Robin fell towards the alley far below. She cussed and dove down towards him. Selina was many things, some good, some not so much, but she wasn't a murderer, and she wasn't about to become one tonight.

Robin frantically tried to put a new grapple line cartridge into his grapple gun, but he couldn't steady his hands. Selina managed to catch up with him and grabbed him before she unfurled her whip from around her waist and lashed it towards the fire escape of the building they were on. But when their weight pulled the whip taught, something in her wrist snapped, sending a screaming pain up her arm.

Robin's back slammed against the railing of the fire escape, their drop had stopped, but Selina couldn't hang on, the broken bone was cutting through her skin, and she could feel it tearing. She let go, sending the two of them towards the street once more.

The fall from the fire escape wasn't terribly far, but the cold streets below were hard and unforgiving. Selina cradled her wrist against her stomach to keep it from breaking any worse. She landed on her back, and the wind was knocked out of her. Robin fell a couple feet away in a pile of overly filled garbage bags, with Selina's loot bag in his hands.

Selina pushed herself onto her feet, still holding her wrist closely. She could feel her bag wasn't on her back anymore, and scanned the ground in search of it. It wasn't unti Robin stood up with it clutched in his fist that she let out a quiet, pained sigh. "Quick hands, kid," she said as she backed away towards the shady end of the alley, she could hear Batman gliding down towards them, and she knew when to cut her losses, "you should try my way for a change."

In the older days, Robin would fire back a quick remark or two, he was more fun than the bat in that way. But she hadn't seen Robin in a while now, and instead of the cheeky grin she'd expected to see since he'd beaten her at her own game, there was an unhappy wrinkle on his forehead and a straight line on his lips.

For a moment, she thought maybe the Bat had left an impression on him, but then a smile broke on his face, "Thanks for the offer-" at that moment, Batman landed between the two, and Catwoman took off running down the other side of the alley.

Her wrist was throbbing and she needed to take care of it. She'd lost her whip on the fire escape, so she ran through the alleys for a while, but she didn't need a 'Catwoman sighting' in the tabloid tomorrow, so she made her up a different fire escape back to the rooftops. Then she remembered that she'd be in the news anyway with the footage from the museum. But that was something to worry about tomorrow. Tonight she needed to worry about getting home and getting herself fixed up.

She managed to scale her apartment building with quite a bit of trouble, but it wasn't like she could just walk in in her Catwoman costume. So she climbed for the better part of an hour, keeping careful not to hit her wrist on anything and instead using her elbow to lift herself up on that side.

When she'd finally made it up to her terrace, she noticed Holly had left the door open for her, so she strode in and tore her mask off, tossing it onto the counter as she made for the medical supplies in one of the kitchen cabinets. She needed to get everything taken care of before Holly- "Selina?" Holly's voice cut any hope Selina had for the night not getting any worse.

Holly, clad in a big t-shirt and pajama shorts with her strawberry blonde hair in a short braid looked at Selina with worried eyes when she caught sight of the medical supplies Selina had pulled out. "What's wrong? Are you hurt? What-" Holly covered her mouth with her hand when she saw Selina's severely swollen wrist through Selina's gloves.

"Holly, honey, I'm fine, just go on back to bed I can take care of it, okay?" Selina tugged at one of the fingers of her glove and slowly began pulling it off. She held in any sounds she might have made and her broken bone was squeezed by the glove's shifting material.

When the glove was off, Holly gasped at the sight of the red and blue stains under Selina's skin, and Selina dry swallowed some medicine for the pain and the swelling. She waited for the swelling to die down before she wrapped it with a splint to keep it from shifting. With the debt still due, she couldn't get a cast put on it because she couldn't work with a huge clump of gauze around her arm, weighing her down and restricting movement.

It would have to wait until after she had taken care of things.

Selina was so deep in thought she barely heard Holly ask, "Where is it?" Selina sighed and reached down with her other hand to unzip her boots and step out of them.

"I didn't get it Holly, just leave this all to me and don't worry yourself about it. Everything'll work out. It always does." And with that, Selina kissed Holly's forehead and slipped off to her room to spend the night tossing and turning, trying to take her mind off the pain and the money.

* * *

The next morning at the Wayne house, Dick Grayson sat on the large leather sofa, watching the news replay the Catwoman footage over and over again. He sat leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees and his hand thumbing over his mouth. He wore his normal boot cut jeans and dark blue t-shirt, a pair of well-worn boots with the tongue sticking out and a motorcycle jacket tossed over the back of the couch.

He'd always liked Catwoman, mostly just because she was one of the only villains Bruce would let him go after when he was just starting because he knew she wouldn't kill him. She'd often joke with him, calling him 'baby bird' and 'blunder wonder'. They had a bit of a rivalry, though she'd always get away with little trouble. Though he liked her, he sure never thought she'd save him, especially not at the expense of a heist.

Of course if she hadn't grabbed hold of him he eventually would have managed to put a new grapple cartridge in his gun, but she didn't know that, and instead of making her getaway she'd saved him. He'd heard either her arm or her wrist snap when their combined weight came to a sudden stop on the taught whip, and he saw her keeping it close when she got up.

Something was off about her last night, though. Normally she'd have simply laughed off the loss of her treasure, and though she made a crack at him, there was frustration in her expression, and a drop in her shoulders he'd never seen before. Dick thought about telling Bruce but he figured whatever he saw, Bruce would have noticed doubly, pointing it out would have only gotten him a bitter "I know," from his broody mentor.

As it was, the entire ride home on his motorcycle he was lectured through the com link about only coming when called and how he wasn't needed. But that night was quiet and Dick had been itching for some action, plus Bruce always seemed to shut him out these days, saying how he could handle things on his own. The only times he was ever called on was when petty crimes were happening around town and Bruce was busy dealing with one of the rogues. So Dick was sent on the kiddy errands.

But Dick wasn't a kid anymore, and sooner or later, Bruce would have to see that.

Unfortunately for Dick, it would be a long time before Bruce would acknowledge him as more than just a whining teenager.

For now, though, Dick held out hope. He listened to Vikki Vale as the TV replayed the footage one last time before moving on to the next topic, "Once again, police are asking that if anyone recognizes this woman, shown here stealing one of the Egyptian headpieces from the Gotham museum, to contact authorities. This _Catwoman'_ is for now considered armed and dangerous and police say it's unclear if she was working on her own. If you encounter Catwoman you are cautioned not to approach her-" Dick grabbed the remote and changed the channel to GMZ.

GCZ would be all over this, the last time Catwoman was caught on camera the men of the tabloid show went on about it for days. Sure enough, as soon as Dick turned it on the men started babbling back and forth. "I mean does she not look like something out of a spy movie?" One man said.

"A _spy movie_?" Another man asked harshly.

"Yeah, I mean she's got the whole spy thing going on-"

" _Anyway_ ," a blonde woman began, cutting the man off and spreading laughter throughout the group, "the headpiece she stole was apparently worth around fifteen million," Dick suddenly noticed Bruce as he walked in in his usual business suit on and his coffee mug in hand.

"You actually watch this show?" Bruce asked.

"Only when I need a good laugh, you should see the things they say about you." Dick finished with a chuckle before turning his attention back to the screen.

"Interestingly enough, though," the blonde continued, "the headpiece was found last night next to the batsignal on the GCPD rooftop, but Catwoman _wasn't_ caught."

"Pffft, that's not surprising." A long brown haired man spit out.

"What does _that_ mean?" the blonde asked with acid in her voice.

The man appeared unaffected by the woman's icy stare, "Can we pull up the footage we got of her last year?"

A video was pulled up on the screen then, showing Catwoman bending and flexing through a series of laser sensors by Dick's guess belonged to a high end jeweler. As the video played, the man spoke, "Now if I was the batman- here, pause right here-" the frame on the camera showed Selina bent over, her legs spread, and her head rising from under a laser with her lips parted, "if I was batman, and I had to choose between taking her to jail and taking her back to my place, I mean c'mon." the man's eyebrows raised quickly, emphasizing his point.

The room filled with agreement and another chimed in, "She's got the whip ready and everything!" From the corner of Dick's eye, he thought he could see Bruce's grip on his coffee mug tighten the slightest bit.

The men in the room all made sounds of agreement and Dick laughed inwardly when he caught of Bruce's set jaw and clenched fingers around his mug.

The camera focused back on the embittered blonde, "Well she's gonna get her crazy ass caught and sent to Arkham so you all might as well kiss that dream goodby-" Bruce then reached over and snatched the remote out of Dick's hand, turned the TV off, and placed the remote back on the coffee table.

He then walked calmly out of the room muttering, "I hate that damn show." Dick held in a laugh before grabbing his jacket from the back of the sofa and heading to the garage to get his motorcycle and meet Barbara at the arcade.

Bruce walked back into the kitchen where Alfred stood at the sink, rinsing the dishes from breakfast and placing them into the dishwasher. He raised his when he caught sight of Bruce, Alfred checked the clock on the wall before saying, "Sir, shall I remind you that you have a board meeting at ten this morning? I thought you'd left several minutes ago."

Bruce walked to the coffee pot and refilled his mug, "I called Lucius and told him I couldn't make it, I have some things to take care of downstairs." There was only one meaning to 'downstairs' in Wayne manor; if you were going to the basement, you said so.

Bruce had almost walked out of the room when Alfred asked, "I take it this has something to do with Ms. Kyle's little…. _escapade_ last night, sir?" Alfred wasn't surprised when Bruce didn't answer him and instead headed toward the study and from there, to the batcave.

Alfred finished the dishes and waited a few extra minutes before following him down the elevator hidden behind the bookcase in the study. After a short time, the doors opened and Alfred stepped out into the cave.

In the center of it all, sitting on a metal extension of the cave floor, sat the master computer. The main screen was massive, and several smaller screens surrounded it on both sides, as well as multiple different forensic analysis devices Alfred never cared to tamper with.

To the left of the computer at the end of a long metal walkway, sat sixteen metal pedestals arranged in a half circle.

The Gotham city police department recognized eight rogues; Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Scare Crow, Riddler, Two-Face, and Mr. Freeze. The common theme that made them 'rogue' was simple; each were regular citizens who one day, either after a freak accident or by choice, became killers and menaces to Gotham in their own ways.

While the GCPD may only have recognized eight, Batman knew better.

Sixteen bare metal pedestals stood for each of them and when approached, holograms would appear above them, and the rogues would be staring ominously at whoever stood before them. The pedestals would light up with basic information, current legal status, and rotate through several captured pictures of them. Those who were currently incarcerated's pictures were tinted red, with large red print running across the hologram saying 'captured'.

The digital interfaces on the pedestals of the rogues on the GCPD's most wanted list were a cool blue, while the others were green. Among the rogues in green were Catwoman, Penguin, Black Mask, Mad Hatter, Bane, the Ventriloquist, Solomon Grundy, and Clay Face.

There were different reasons for each of them not being black listed, reasons Bruce felt were more like excuses. Bane and Clay Face weren't consistent enough of pests to blacklist, Black Mask and Penguin were supposedly now had gone straight and were clean businessmen, Mad Hatter, Solomon Grundy, and the Ventriloquist had been locked up for a couple years now so they weren't taken into consideration, and then there was Catwoman.

Bruce had called in late to Lucius because of that damn woman. Because he was up all night, staring at the screen of his computer in the darkened cave, looking at the cat-like grin he loved so much and those green eyes that never ceased to amaze him as they stared back at him. He just sat there, with Gordon's voice repeating over in his head like a gloomy echo.

Yes, last night after they'd run into Catwoman, he'd taken the bag with the headdress inside of it to the GCPD's rooftop, and Gordon had just happened to be on his cigarette break at the time.

Batman had tossed the bag to Gordon, and when Gordon looked inside of it, he sighed. He knew this was Catwoman's steal; he'd dispatched some of his men to the museum about an hour ago for the Egyptian exhibit.

Gordon also knew how much the headpiece was worth, and how big of a scandal it would've been if she'd made off with it.

Gordon sighed and tossed the bag onto the concrete rail of the building. "That's it for her; you know that, don't you?" He asked, when Batman didn't respond, he continued, "I barely managed to shut the curator up after that Monet painting she stole last year, not to mention the museum's investors. They're going to be pushing for her to be blacklisted, and I don't know if I can stop them this time."

Gordon took another breath of his cigarette, "I gave you time to talk to her-"

"I haven't seen her in almost a year." Batman finally said.

"There's nothing I can do," Gordon said after a minute, "I'm sorry. This time tomorrow she'll be on the list, and there'll be a major push for her to be caught."

"She doesn't deserve Arkham." Batman said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Gordon looked out over Gotham and faced the grim reality, "I know. She never made a move to hurt any of my officers," Gordon paused before adding, " I even remember once this girl came into the station, she'd been raped by some scum down in the East end, she kept swearing a woman in a purple suit saved her. That same night we found the men, beaten to a pulp and unconscious in a back alley. Each of had a claw mark across their face to mark them for what they did."

Gordon had checked up on her a few months after the incident, and the girl's eyes had gleamed when she spoke of the woman who saved her. Gordon bit the inside of his lip, "But all rogues go to Arkham, you know that."

And that's the phrase that had been repeating in Bruce's ears all night. All rogues go to Arkham.

Alfred made his way to Bruce's side, and watched the screen as Bruce pulled up a map of Gotham, with purple dots scattered across it. "These are every known hit she's ever made, at least the ones that can be proven," Bruce explained in a lost voice, "the last time I saw her…. It's been months, Alfred, _months._ "

"I'm not quite sure I understand what you're getting at, sir." Alfred said.

Bruce sighed and leaned back in his chair, his tailored suit and slicked back hair made him look sharp and orderly, they covered how he was inside; confused, worried, and lost most of all. "She just- she would normally make it a point to see me, to play with me like she always does, to try to get me off balance- but she just ran."

"Well, she _was_ trying to pull off a heist, Master Wayne." Alfred couldn't say he cared much for Selina Kyle. He'd never once met her, though from what Bruce always described she sounded like a fiery, driven young woman. But Alfred never saw that fire in her eye Bruce loved, he never saw the passion for life she had, he never heard her laugh, and had never known her bravery or loyalty.

All Alfred saw was what was left. Specifically, what was left of Bruce after a Catwoman encounter. Directly after an encounter, he was pleasant, happy, even. He would smile to himself while typing in the occurrences of the night, and nod and smile when he said goodnight. It was little things, but Alfred could see them.

Then, the next few days were hell to watch. Bruce would slowly lose that smile, which was normal for him anyways, only he'd be worse off than before, with less life than a rock and less energy than Alfred, a man nearly fifty years his senior.

It seemed to Alfred then that Selina Kyle was nothing more than a thief, taking the good out of the world one night at a time.

He would never say these things to Bruce, though, because he knew. He knew that Bruce loved her; he could see it in him, even if Bruce would never admit it to even himself.

"No," Bruce said, "there's something more, here. I haven't seen her in months, but she's been busy, mostly with small jewelry stores, taking nothing over ten or twenty thousand dollars' worth at one time. The headdress from the museum is worth nearly fifteen million," Bruce looked up at Alfred, "why the sudden jump?"

Bruce leaned forward again, his fingers typing furiously until Selina's bank records were pulled onto the screen. And then, Bruce sat back once again. "She cleared everything out…" he said, his voice draining off.

"It seems she was simply trying to fill her bank account again, sir." Bruce shook his head.

"No," he said after a minute, "even if that is what she was doing, she wouldn't go after something so big, she's been trying to stay out of the media lately, why would she go to the museum when she knows there are so many cameras?"

Bruce checked the withdraw records and saw that she spent most of her money on renovations about a month ago, but invested the rest in stocks. "She got caught in a bad market?" Bruce asked himself.

He couldn't see what stock specifically she'd invested in, but he had all morning to find out. Alfred shook his head, but knew that Bruce was all but lost to the world now. He might as well go upstairs and call Lucius to tell him Bruce wouldn't be in at all today.

* * *

Selina had woken up around six, or more like just given up from trying to sleep and dragged herself out of bed. In the kitchen, she slowly pulled the wrapping off of her wrist, only to find it still swollen and bruised badly.

She sighed and wrapped it up again as tightly as she could, after this was all over and Carmine had his money, she'd go to the hospital and get a cast on it, but she couldn't have anything slowing her down for now.

After a few hours of Selina watching cartoons in the living room, Holly woke up and walked in, asking how Selina's wrist was. Selina just shrugged, "It could be worse."

Holly stood leaning against the couch unhappily, "You should give it some time before you go out again," Selina was about to open her mouth and protest but Holly stopped her, "why don't you spend tonight planning your next target instead? Get everything laid out and tomorrow you can do whatever you need to."

Selina closed her mouth and thought for a moment before nodding. "Alright, fine." She stood up then, and walked toward the kitchen with her arm kept close to her, "So, what do you want for breakfast? I'm thinking pancakes."

"Selina, I can make breakfast, your hand-"

"Is fine. Now how many pancakes do you want?" Selina gave her a quick wink and opened the pantry to grab the quick mix pancakes.

"Four I guess," Holly said with a smile before sitting back on the sofa and watching the cartoons.

Holly hadn't been sitting there for more than two minutes when the cartoon was cut short and the news came on with a breaking news banner.

Holly tried to call Selina, tried to say something, anything, but she couldn't.

Along the bottom of the screen a banner read:

_BREAKING NEWS: Catwoman Declared 9_ _th_ _Gotham Rogue, Police Hunt Is On_

Gordon stood at a podium, outside the police department, speaking to a crowd of reporters, "After last night's break in at the Gotham city museum, it has been decided amongst myself, the city council, and the mayor, that it is within the city's best interest that 'Catwoman' is caught and brought to justice for her crimes against the public. Policemen across the city will be on the lookout for this woman, and we ask that the public does its part in the apprehension of the suspect-"

Selina stood, frozen in the kitchen, just staring at the cupboard in front of her as she listened to the commissioner talk about her like she was the Joker himself.

Across town, still in his cave, Bruce watched Gordon on one of the smaller screens to the side of his computer, and felt something in him drop. He knew this was coming. He'd had plenty of warning last night. He'd hoped it wouldn't happen so soon though.

He didn't have a choice now.

All those times he'd just let her slip away, the times he'd threatened to 'take her down' but knew he wouldn't, or the times he'd offered to let her go if she handed her loot over, they were gone. He didn't have a choice now.

If Catwoman stole again, she was done.

All rogues go to Arkham.


	3. How Catwoman Was Caught

Selina sat in the poorly lit interrogation room, her broken wrist encased in a cast with handcuffs on that chained her to the cold metal table she was sitting at.

Her hair was ties back in a neat bun, as was Arkham protocol for long hair, she wore the bright orange attire that was given to her along with the thick and clunky pair of black lace-up boots. A small cut running parallel with her cheekbone bled the slightest bit. She could still hear the echo of the gunshot as the bullet merely grazed her cheek. She could still hear the cracking and breaking of bones as Batman cleared the entire room.

Most vividly though, she could still hear the sound of the handcuffs as they were locked on her wrists.

And now here she was, sitting in good ole Arkham Asylum, the pinnacle of insane asylums everywhere. She'd been sitting in this godforsaken room for well over an hour. They were probably looking up her prints right now, and trying to find every little dirty secret they could exploit to make her crack, or whatever it is they wanted from her.

Selina mentally prepped herself for the worst as the sound of footsteps grew closer to the door until they stopped just outside. She could sense Batman was behind the observation glass, she just could. She could almost envision him standing there, too; watching her every breath, her every movement, her every expression.

She would give him nothing.

Finally, the door opened, and a doctor stepped through.

Selina looked up at the clock hanging on the wall, which read 3:24 A.M.

"You kept me waiting long enough," she said in her usual purr. She needed to send a message; she wasn't intimidated in the slightest by this place, whether or not the message was true was irrelevant.

"Yes, my apologies, Ms. Kyle," the man said, taking his seat at the table. Selina noticed he had not a single folder with him, no ammunition to use against her, no information, nothing. She then noticed how calm and relaxed he was; so much so that he almost rivaled her. "I was just notified that you'd been taken into custody. My name is Dr. Matthew West, and I've been assigned as a specialist in your case, Ms. Kyle, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all yours, Dr. West." She looked once more to the clock, "I do hope this won't take very long, I'm eager to get a look at my cell." She smiled, but her voice was full of sarcasm.

"Well, normally I'm required to give you a full psych evaluation before your admittance here at Arkham, but I decided we'd start small," he leaned forward and folded his hands on the table between them. "So, instead of the trivial and repetitive questions about your childhood, I have two questions."

Selina's lip pulled into a one sided smile, "I like you already." She said, relaxing against her chair. "So, what do you want to know?" she said, relaxing back into her chair. If he wanted to play, then she was game.

"Well, for starters," he began, "why is it that every other inmate brought in by Batman arrives with broken bones, sometimes severe lacerations, massive contusions, and here you are, with a small break in your wrist, and the smallest of cuts on your cheek?"

Selina smiled, "I like to think it's because he likes me," she turned and looked at the one way mirror and winked, "ain't that right, Bats?"

On the other side of the mirror, Batman, standing alongside Gordon and the chief of Arkham security stiffened.

"Ms. Kyle, please give me a straight answer."

"I did."

"You're avoiding giving me an answer, why is that?" her smile faded quickly.

She sighed; she was exhausted, and talking in circles with this man was doing nothing for her patience. "Please don't go all shrink on me now." She said simply.

Dr. West chuckled lightly, "Well, that _is_ my job Ms. Kyle." He waited for her to answer, but she had little intention of doing so. "If you would, please answer the question."

She closed her eyes for a brief moment, she was too tired to think anymore tonight, the sooner she was done with this, the better. "What was the question? Why he doesn't crush my bones and bludgeon my face when he catches me?" Dr. West gave an amused smile, but nodded.

"Well, you'd have to ask him to know the truth of it," she nodded toward the mirror again, "but, if you ask me, it's because I don't try to _kill_ him," she said, "or anyone else for that matter." She added.

Dr. West looked almost taken back by that, "What? Is that so surprising?" she asked, a bit of acid in her voice.

"If I'm being honest? Yes." Selina rolled her eyes at that.

"You got your answer, now-"

"Actually, something you said peaked my interest," he said, leaning back in his seat and rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "you said when he 'catches' you, which is plural. Has he caught you before?" Selina bit her tongue, but kept a straight face. She was at a loss for how to answer him.

"Never quite so permanently." She quipped with a sarcastic pull to her lips.

"You keep deflecting my questions with humor," he said with a smile that mirrored her own, "but we'll move on for now," behind the one way mirror, Gordon turned to the Arkham head of security.

"Are all the other doctors like this? Or just him?" the security guard came to stand beside Gordon and looked into the room at Selina.

He shook his head as he spoke, "It depends; all other inmates are assigned to one of our general doctors, but the rogues? They get some special treatment. Each rogue inmate is matched to a doctor that adheres to their personalities, call it a dose of their own medicine."

"That's one way of doing it, I suppose." Gordon said. Batman stood silently. In the early days, the Arkham staff were not quite so accepting of him, many of them felt that he belonged there just as much as any other looney he brought in, but over time, they grew accustomed to him, and respected the work he did. Now he was thought of nothing more than a frequent visitor.

"Right then," Dr. West began, "now, my second question might take a while to answer, but please do just get right to it," he said, an annoying amount of humor in his voice, "you have to be up soon for the morning routine, and I'd hate for you to be tired."

Selina kept an indifferent smile on her face; if Dr. West wanted to play, she was more than willing to beat him at his own game. In time.

For tonight, he'd walk away the victor. There wasn't much she could do about it.

"Very well." She said flatly.

"Excellent, now tell me," he leaned forward, genuinely interested, "how is it that the infamous Catwoman, 'the Madam of Mischief' I believe the papers called you, was caught? You were supposed to be the best."

She took a moment and looked into his eyes, but then burst out into a wicked laughter that lasted several moments. When she quieted down she also leaned forward, and looked into the man's gray eyes, "I _am_ the best, don't forget that."

His eyes stared back into hers; he was fascinated.

"You want to know how I got caught?" she said, leaning back and staring at her nails nonchalantly.

"Yes." He responded quickly. She sighed and relaxed herself for what would be a long, and in her opinion, boring tale.

"It all started with a bad investment…" she began with a half amused, half tired voice.

* * *

 

As Selina retold her bad gamble, she dreaded telling the ending to her tale; she'd have to come up with something to replace the ending, for her own and for Batman's sake.

The day she was officially declared a rogue was a Monday morning. Listening to Holly's advice, she took the day off, if only to rest her wrist. She had until Saturday to come up with the five million.

Plenty of time.

While she relaxed that Monday, she decided it was best to ensure her next success by calling in an old friend for a favor.

And so, Tuesday morning, she met with the Riddler, and the two of them met in their usual spot in the park. As they watched joggers, elderly couples, and baby sitters pass by, an agreement was made. Eddie would create a distraction in the most southern part of Gotham at precisely 11:00 Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, in the most Northern part of Gotham, Selina would rob the most prestigious jewelry store for miles around of a certain 7 million dollar jewelry set.

And it all went off without a hitch. Except the part where Eddie somehow got himself caught and thrown back into Arkham. Selina felt badly about getting him caught, but she had to go on with the plan for now. She'd worry about Eddie later.

And so, she set a meeting up with Tick, her contact, for the Thursday night down by the docks. He always made his deals underneath pier 13. It was just how he operated.

He'd been her go-to with recently stolen jewelry for years, mostly because he was the only guy willing to buy it. If a something well known has been recently stolen, selling it quickly becomes a bit difficult, and in Tick's business, it was all about how quickly you could make a profit.

She knew the necklace was, at a market value, worth 7 million. But with Tick buying it, he wouldn't be able to pay her that much; he had to make a profit, too, and paying market value for things was not how you made a profit.

But when Tick made his offer, Selina had to restrain herself from knocking him right on his ass.

He offered 4 million in cash.

What was worse?

He didn't even have the money with him.

Or so he claimed. Selina was smart enough to see what was happening. She had amounted a good number of enemies in this city; that was to be expected in this line of work. It was necessary. She just didn't expect Tick would end up to be one of them.

Word spreads fast in the underworld; someone must've heard about her little problem and made Tick a deal. A lot of people wanted to take Catwoman down, and they'd never again get a chance like this, so they were doing whatever was necessary to ensure she'd run into trouble with Falcone.

The most she would get out of the set was 4 million. And the trade would have to happen tomorrow night; Friday night.

Her head was spinning, she hadn't planned on this. There was nothing left for her to do.

She had no one to turn to. She couldn't work another heist; she couldn't risk running into Batman with a broken wrist, he'd catch her almost indefinitely.

She had to take the deal Tick had offered.

And pray that Falcone would be in a good mood on Saturday night because she was coming up short.

When Saturday night rolled around, Selina found herself staring in the mirror as she got ready. And as to be expected, Holly was freaking out.

"You know he won't just let this slide, Selly," Holly called from her spot on the living room couch. Selina was completely calm and poised on the outside. But on the inside? Well, that was another matter entirely.

"Holly, if I don't show, that will be worse. Much, much worse because that means I've either turned rat, or I've skipped out in payment. Both would end in similar ways. I'm not willing to risk that." Selina looked herself over in the mirror.

Her tight dark skinny jeans made her ass look great, and the black blouse she wore was the perfect cross between business and pleasure. Her hair was, as usual, let down in loose ringlets. Her eye makeup was dark, as usual; the dark of her eye shadow made her brilliant green eyes shine all the more. She topped it all off with red lipstick and a pair of very sensible black heels just in case things went south.

She never did transactions in costume.

Ever.

If she did, and somehow the cops finally caught wise, then not only do they have her in connection to whatever Gotham scum is in her presence, they have her on about 15 other counts of grand larceny and whatever else they could tack on to a masked thief.

And so, she made it a point to never do businesses in costume.

Selina rubbed her lips together, evening out the lipstick before she turned and went into the living room where Holly sat, practically pouting as she hugged a pillow to her chest.

"You can't even tell your hand is broken from here." Holly said, trying to push the thought of Falcone from her mind. Selina nodded and looked down at her wrist.

"You have no idea how much foundation it took to cover up the bruising." She said, "It looks just wrong up close, though." Selina walked to Holly and held out her hand. She was right, it looked ridiculously unnatural. A bone was clearly protruding at a very severe and very ugly angle. The only good thing was that the swelling had gone down so much that unless she held both hands out side by side, you couldn't tell there was anything wrong. For the most part.

Having already met with Tick and made the deal, all the money was tucked away in a nice, sturdy, cliché suitcase, just waiting for a certain mob boss's greedy hands.

Within the hour, Selina was escorted through the back entrance of the Iceberg, and from there, to Falcone's back room.

As she stepped inside, she was met with a heavy cloud of cigar smoke. Two of Carmine's men stood by the door, and a third sat at a table on the other side of the room, sipping his drink occasionally and smoking his cigar.

Selina strode in with a smile on her face, "Selina," Carmine said with approval as he stood and motioned her to sit beside him at his poker table, "come on in; have a seat." He was eyeing her briefcase since the moment she walked in.

She sat herself in the chair Falcone motioned toward, and laid the brief case on the table. "You're looking good, Selina," he said nonchalantly, "you look just like your mother." Her eyes widened and she was about to snap at him, but she held it in, "Anyway," he said, dismissing his comment, "how was your week?" he asked with a smile.

Selina bit her tongue, "It could've been better, and it's about to get worse." She keeps a straight face and sits back in her chair. She laid her arms on the table, making sure to cover her broken wrist with her other hand.

"Is there something meant by that, Cat?" he practically spat the last word at her. She braced herself for what would come next.

She slid the briefcase over to him, and waited for him to open it. "Came up short." She said as he looked down at it with a straight face. "I'm short one mil," she said, turning her head to look out the massive window that overlooked the rest of northern Gotham. "The bat's been on my case all this week, I couldn't risk being caught." Her voice was even and matter of fact, the last thing she wanted to do was come off as one of those saps begging for more time.

Carmine sighed in a disappointment as he sat back in his wooden chair and tapped his cigar against the rim of the ashtray. "Selina, I like you, you know I do," Selina stared out the window, waiting for the ominous threat she was about to receive, "but you see, lately, it seems that more and more people are borrowing, with no intention of repaying," behind her, she heard the click of a gun.

The two men by the door came on either side of her. She finally looked Carmine in the eye, "I'm worth more to you alive than dead, Carmine, you know that." Her voice was unwavering.

"I don't need a body, kitty, I need a message sent." Her face was stone as he leaned forward, "I'm sorry, cat." He sighed as one of the men grabbed her arm and hoisted her up, leading her away from the table. The third man came to

She didn't care to think of what Falcone had in mind for her. A million different ways to escape were running through her mind but all thought ceased when the window behind them was shattered and a smoke pellet clattered against the floor.

Falcone screamed muffled curses into the fabric of his suit jacket, trying to protect himself from the smoke. The third man across the room jumped up and drew his gun as he moved towards the shattered window.

One of the men released his hold on her, drawing his gun as smoke flooded into the room. Using the distraction to her advantage, Selina broke the second man's hold on her arm and made a move for the door leading back into the club, but Falcone's men had locked the door shut, just in case she had tried to make a run for it.

She watched as the man looking out the window was thrown back by a massive force. The momentum threw the men so far back that he hit the opposite wall.

Selina scanned the room; looking for any other possible escape.

Knowing Batman, she had maybe two minutes to get out of here before he'd cleared the room. On the side wall of the room, she noticed a small window, and a fire escape. Without hesitating, she sprinted towards it as Carmine shouted and took aim at her as Batman threw a batarang towards Carmine's hand.

Just as Carmine pulled the trigger, his hand was slammed into by the batarang. Selina had just gotten the escape window open when the bullet just barely skimmed her cheek. Batman froze and his heart skipped a beat.

He only released the breath he'd been holding when Selina stumbled out of the window and onto the fire escape.

He quickly regained himself, and in seconds had the other two thugs on the ground and begin making his way to Carmine. Selina practically threw herself up the stairs, she didn't have much time; she'd seen how easily Batman could clear a room, and he'd be on her trail soon.

Sure enough, just as she reached the top of the fire escape, she felt its metal frame shake from his weight. She flung herself off of it and onto the roof of the Iceberg lounge where neon lights dizzied her head. Her ear was ringing with the sound of the bullet as it passed by her, and the smoke had left her with quite the headache.

For now she ignored it as she sprinted across the roof, hoping to find a lower building to jump onto below her. Even if there was something to jump onto, she didn't have her claws, or her whip, and she was virtually trapped.

As she reached the other side of the rooftop, she realized her worried thoughts were moot, because the building that stood behind the Iceberg was miniscule in comparison and the drop was too far for a smooth landing.

She stared down at the building below and laid her hands flat on the roof's cement edge. The ruffle of his cape in the light breeze told her there was no escape left. And she was out of time.

For once, she got straight to business, which he found strange. "How did you know?"

He hesitated, something caught in his throat that he couldn't quite explain, "You've been busier this week than you've been in months," he said, looking her over with the smallest hint of sadness.

"That's it?" she asked flatly.

"No," he answered, "it was Nygma's distraction that tipped me off." Selina smiled bitterly as her eyes began to sting. "He'd been even quieter than you lately, but then the same night he resurges, you pull off a heist in northern Gotham at almost the exact same time. You cleared out your bank account-"

She turned around at that, "You hacked into my bank records?" she scoffed. "Now that sounds fairly illegal in its own right." He didn't say anything to that. She focused on a building in the distance, "And how did you know I'd be here?"

He stood silently for several moments before she let out a bitter laugh, "Oh, come _on_ , Bats, now's not the time to be bashful."

He thought about for a minute before finally answering, "I tapped your phone, when you called Tick, you mentioned that you needed the money before tonight, he seemed to have already known that." Selina waited for the conclusion as she stared at the man before her, "It wasn't difficult to get the information from him." She smiled and closed her eyes as she ran her hand through her hair.

"Well, at least that little weasel got what was coming to him, I'm just sad I wasn't there to see the look on his face." Batman reached for the handcuffs on his belt, and Selina took a step back, hitting her back against the cement edge.

"Thanks for the distraction Bats, you can leave now." She said with a smile and a nod.

"Selina," he sighed.

"You know what they'll do to me; they'll send me to the asylum, Bats." Her voice held the faintest tremble in it, "We both know I don't belong there."

"It's out of my hands now." She stared back at him and shook her head.

"That's bullshit," she said. She was out of cards to play, and she was done pretending that wasn't the case. "All those other times you looked the other way-"

"This time it's different, Selina."

"How?" she fired back, "How is it different now? It's still you, me, a rooftop, and a crime. It looks pretty damn familiar to me."

She was right, if he was going to arrest her, he should've done it long ago, before Arkham was even part of the conversation. He was wrong for that, he knew.

But she broke the law, several dozen times, and had to face the consequences eventually.

She saw there was no moving him, so she stepped forward. "Fine," she said, holding her hands out in front of her, "let's go then."

He clicked the left cuff shut and turned to do the other when he saw her wrist. Her skin was clearly covered in some sort of make up to cover up the bruising, he knew because he'd done it before. "This should be in a cast."

"I had work to do." He could see that keeping her hand up was causing her pain, even though she would never say so. He clicked the cuff in place, but left it loose enough that she could slip her hand out if she wanted to, it would hurt like hell, but she could do it.

He turned away from her and pushed some buttons under a cover of his gauntlet. She followed him slowly as he walked toward the side of the building with the fire escape. "Police are on their way for Carmine and his thugs."

"And me?" He shook his head as he reached for his grapple gun.

"I'll run you in."

"Such a gentleman." She mumbled as he wrapped his muscled arm around her and pulled her to him. She laid her hands flat against his chest as he shot the grapple at the fire escape and stepped off the edge.

She hadn't been this close to him in months, and as much as she hated to admit it, she missed him. She missed his smell, his voice, and the feel of his rigid muscles. She missed his kiss, too. But that was in no way happening tonight. She didn't have the heart for it.

He lowered them to the alley below, which was just wide enough for the batmobile. Except, it was nowhere in sight. He let her go and she immediately missed his warmth, but hid it by cracking a joke, "Looks like you've been car jacked," she said with a bitter humor, "such a pity, reall-"

He pressed another button and as before her eyes, the batmobile appeared on the street. "Well," she sighed, "that's new." The passenger door opened up, its door lifting up to sit above her. "And that is, too."

She stepped inside and sat in the leather seat. He closed the door behind her, and she closed her eyes, trying not to think of what was going to happen from here.

As he walked around the car, he was having doubts that he could go through with this.

She went against almost everything he stood for, this should be easy.

But with Selina, nothing was ever easy. And with just one look, her green eyes pulled at his heart. He was losing his nerve, but he refused to let it show.

He sat down into the driver's seat and closed the door. Her eyes looked the interior over, "Can we stop by my place on the way?" she spoke as if it was the clear course of action, "I doubt anyone would recognize me in this outfit, and I'd hate to disappoint." The engine roared to life and in a matter of seconds, they were on one of Gotham's main roads.

He didn't say anything, but internally agreed. "I trust you know, seeing as how you bugged my phone." She still wasn't over that. "But I guess it makes sense that you would since you already knew my name, it goes without saying that you'd of course eventually play dirty."

"How is that-"

"It's dirty because it's unfair. You know me, probably everything about me, and I know _nothing_ about you." She sat back in her seat and stared out the window.

"I don't." he said as he turned down another road to avoid a backup.

"What?" she asked, only half interested in whatever he had to say.

"I _don't_ know everything about you." She nodded and bit her lip.

"Just my name, my address, and my finances." She mumbled.

In a matter of minutes, they were parked in an alley near her apartment and he used his grapple gun to lift them to the penthouse balcony. Selina brushes away from him quickly, and pulls open the balcony doors that she never bothered to lock.

Holly jumps up from her spot on the couch in fear, but when she realized it was Selina, she hurried to her and hugged her. "You were supposed to be back an hour ago," the girl said, suddenly noticing that Selina wasn't hugging her back.

Holly looked down and saw the handcuffs. "Selina-"

"It's alright, Holly." Selina spoke as Holly finally saw Batman standing back on the balcony. Holly's lip began to quiver. "Holly, listen to me, do you remember what I taught you?" Holly could barely focus.

" _Do you remember?"_ Selina repeated.

When Holly first came to live with her, Selina taught Holly what to do in case this happened. There was an offshore bank account Selina set up for her, to ensure that she could live comfortably for a while should anything happen. Selina had showed her exactly how to manage and use it, and helped her plan how to make the money last.

Holly nodded her head numbly. "Good girl," she said, turning from her back to Batman, "now, if you would," she held out her hands, "it's kind of hard to change in cuffs." He just stared at her for a moment. "Don't worry, I'm not going to make a break for it."

He begrudgingly unlocked the cuffs, "You have five minutes."

"Four more than I need." She turned away and disappeared down the hall, Holly trailing along after her.

He stood there, regretting coming in the first place. In Selina's bedroom, she pulled out her catsuit as she went over a few things with Holly. "The police will probably rip this place apart, so let them. They won't find anything. When they've cleared out, come back and get the records, but for now just let them be." Holly nodded obediently as Selina tore her clothes off save for her undergarments.

She slid the familiar purple leather over her body as well as her boots and gloves. She kept the mask in her hands, there didn't seem to be a point in wearing it anymore. Holly's tears began to trail down her cheeks.

Selina wrapped her arms around her and kissed her head. "I'll be fine, darling," she let Holly go and smiled at her, "and so will you." Selina brushed a tear from Holly's cheek and turned away from her.

Isis rubbed against the back of Selina's leg lovingly, and Selina scooped her up in her arms, pressing her head against the feline's silky fur. Isis crawled onto Selina's neck and wrapped her tail around her neck, refusing to be moved. Selina reached up and scratched her head as she walked back to the balcony.

Selina could tell he was curious as to why she had a cat draped over her, "She wants out." Batman huffed in response. She held out her wrists and Batman clicked the cuffs on once more before the two descended back into the alley.

Once Batman let her go, Selina reached up to her neck and Isis unfurled herself from Selina's shoulders. Selina stroked the cat lovingly before setting her on the sidewalk. Isis stared back at Selina with beautiful, knowing gold eyes.

Isis turned and began walking away from Selina down a sidewalk, and Selina turned back to Batman. "Will she come back?" surprising how he was actually talking tonight.

"No," she answered as she stepped inside the batmobile, "she only comes to me." Batman thought it was strange how she would just let her pet go, but didn't question it.

A few minutes later, they were en route to the asylum.

Selina rested her head against the window, staring out at the passing lights and people. She didn't know how she'd survive Arkham, but she would. She would push through, just like she always did and would continue to long after she was set free.

"Who was she?" he asked, breaking the silence; he was uncomfortable seeing her so quiet and calm, he needed her to be talking, about anything really, he just couldn't stand her silence.

"Holly," she answered, keeping her eyes on the street lights that went flying by, "Holly Robinson." Her brow furrowed, "She had nothing to do with it; I was just looking after her." Selina bit her lip, maybe if she was talking, she could avoid thinking about the future that much longer. "Her parents were killed a while ago," Batman tensed, she was too busy looking out the window to notice, "car accident. She had no other family and she was too old for the system."

Selina thought of Holly's bright, wide smile and bouncing strawberry blonde curls, the image made Selina smile, "She's a good kid." Her smile faded when she saw a sign signaling the turnoff to Arkham Island. Reality was setting in. "Keep an eye on her for me?" She finally looked over at him, and he made a sort of grumble that sounded like a yes, but with Batman you never could be quite sure.

As they pulled onto the two lane bridge that connected Arkham to Gotham, Selina's heart beat faster. She took a deep breath and tried to relax against the seat. The palm of her good hand squeezed her knee nervously.

It didn't go unnoticed.

But she didn't care anymore.

He already felt the sting of guilt in his gut and he hadn't even put it in park yet.

They pulled up to the front of Arkham Asylum, and immediately two security guards came through the door, but stayed at the steps. They recognized the batmobile, and knew what his presence meant.

She looked over to him, her head still resting back against the headrest. She smiled faintly at him, "Do I at least get a goodbye kiss?" he just stared over at her; he'd never seen her this anxious before.

She bit her lip nervously, "Right then," she said, sitting up, "let's go."

All of a sudden, his glozed hand came to her cheek, turning her face back to him. Before she knew it, his lips were on hers, crushing against her with a fierce intensity. They hadn't been together in months, and if this was going to be the last time in a long time, he wouldn't hold back.

His hands wound down her curves, memorizing them as the kiss deepened further. She tasted sweet and rich, like raspberries.

By the time they had to come up for air, they were breathless and glossy eyed. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, allowing herself one last breath of him. "I'm ready." She said.

They both exited the car and made their way to the steps. She held her mask in hand, and smiled at the guards, who straightened at their approach. "Evening, boys," she purred. You'd have never known that she was heading to prison with a smile like that.

He knew it was a show.

He held her arm, mostly for show, but also because it was the last contact he'd have with her for God knows how long. The guards were visibly taken back by her; whether it was her calmness, beauty, sultry voice, or all at once, it was difficult to say.

Both of them held rifles, and both stared at her. One got on his radio and turned away from them, "This is Daniels, Batman's here."

The other guard nodded his head for them to follow as the guards walked back to the main door. A scratchy response came through the radio, "Go ahead Daniels."

"Let the GCPD know that Catwoman is in Arkham custody."

* * *

 

Selina recounted the entire events of the week from hell to Dr. West, leaving out of course the part where Batman took her back to her apartment as well as their make out in the batmobile.

"Fascinating." Dr. West said, his eyes wide with interest, "It sounds like there were several factors that led to you being brought here, Ms. Kyle."

She smiled and hummed a laugh, "More than you know." She said as she looked back to the one way mirror.


	4. Broken Deal

Selina watched as Dr. West rose from his seat, opening his mouth to say his goodbyes for the night. "Well, Ms. Kyle, it was truly a pleasure meeting you," a light hit his eyes that told her he was genuine in this, "I look forward to working with you. I will see you tomorrow morning for your preliminary evaluation."

"Goodnight, Doctor." She said, adding a little bow of her head to him.

She looked over to the mirror with a completely unreadable expression on her face, "Gordon, would you come in here for a minute?"

Behind the mirror, Gordon looked at the security guard, "How did she-"

"There's no way that Gotham's 'ninth rogue' gets brought in and the city's workaholic commissioner _isn't_ here watching it unfold." She said. "I'll make it worth your while, commissioner, I promise."

Gordon sighed, "Might as well go see what she wants."

In another moment, Gordon was in the room with her. Unlike the other two men, Gordon kept his distance. He walked over into the room and stood with his back to the mirror. Selina looked him over, his hair was graying, and his face was weathered with years.

"You got old, Gordon." She said, looking down at her cast.

"Have we met before?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest. She looked over to him and allowed a calm smile to pass over her lips, her eyes held none of that smile in them, though.

"I don't expect that you'd remember, it was a long time ago." Gordon narrowed his eyes, trying to force himself to remember her face, her hair, anything. She looked back down at her hands, letting the smile slip away, "That's not why I wanted to see you,"

"Then why?"

Her green eyes looked over to him with a business-like intensity. "I have a proposition for you." Gordon's brow furrowed, it was usually him making the deals, not the other way around. "I have names, faces, places, and evidence."

"Of what?"

"Crimes, what else?" she tugged at the handcuff around her cast, "Mostly of small time crimes; smuggling, fraud, drug trafficking-"

Gordon's eyes widened, "And these are 'small time'?" he asked with a sarcastic huff.

She lifted up her cuffs, with a narrowed-eye grin, "Compared to me…?" she let the chains slam onto the metal table, "I guess so. Because all they will end up with is a few months in the state prison, and me? Well of course I get sent to an asylum for God knows how long."

"Is that why you're willing to sell them out?" he asked, genuinely curious on what would make her turn rat so quickly.

"No, not really. I'm selling them out because one of them had some part to play in me ending up here, and if I go down, then I'm taking them down with me." She stared at him, looking for some sort of reaction, but was given none. "And because I'm not interested in spending any longer in here than absolutely necessary."

Gordon nodded, "Where is this evidence?"

"An associate of mine knows where it is, you'll only get it when I see our deal in writing. I know everything from memory, you can use that to judge how much it's worth. I'll have the synopsis of my files sent to your office, but no evidence-"

"Until it's in writing, I get it." Gordon took off his glasses and wiped them on his shirt, "Where was it?"

She stared back at him blankly, "Where do I know you from?" he clarified.

"I'll give you a hint; 'It'll all be alright, sweetheart, you'll see, everything will be alright.' Ring a bell?" Gordon still couldn't place it, but he'd seen her before, he knew it. Problem was, her hint wasn't much of a hint. He'd said those words so many times to people over his long career it seemed like it was part of the job now.

"Nothing? I thought so." She turned her head to the side, and it was apparent she was done talking.

"I'll keep your capture quiet from the press, if it leaks everyone who knew you will go underground."

"Some of the ones in my files don't even know I have dirt on them." She said.

"Still, we'll keep things quiet. It's important that they don't know you're in here. Your identity will be kept a secret, and no one will know you're cooperating with us." She kept silent, and he took the hint. After a moment's hesitation, he let himself out of the room.

Batman had since taken his leave, and so the security guards entered the room and led Selina away to her cell.

The rogues were not kept in one wing, as would be suspected, but they were kept completely spread out on opposite ends of the island. That was how security kept them on lockdown, having them all in one wing was just asking for a disaster.

And so, Selina was taken through the entire prison, she ignored the hoots and whistles and obscenities that were directed at her by the inmates as she passed. She kept her eyes straight ahead the entire way, walking with her head held high and followed the four- was that really necessary, _four?_ \- security guards armed with guns as she was led through the halls.

She could've gotten away from them somehow, though it would've been difficult with all of them armed. She was taken to the absolute furthest reach of the prison, and was finally ushered into a long hall with a solitary cell at the end of it.

As she stepped through the head of security spoke, "Turn around and hold out your hands." She did as she was instructed. He unlocked her cuffs as the other three guards kept their guns trained on her.

In another minute, the guard stepped back, and the thick glass door shut behind them. Selina put her hand on the glass, and tested it by knocking on it.

It wasn't any normal glass, bulletproof, maybe? Whatever it was, it was thick and solid. In the distance, she could still hear the inmates roaring and slamming on their cell bars. The lights in the long hallways started to shut off as the guards made their way out.

She was left in almost complete darkness, save for the small light that was left on in her cell. She made her way to her bed and laid down on it, taking a deep breath as she propped her hands under her head and took a long, slow breath.

Bruce stepped out of the batmobile and all but slammed the door behind him. He tore off the cowl and tossed it over his chair as he pulled it back and took his seat. He stared at the massive screen before him, and began typing at a fervent pace.

Alfred emerged from the elevator on the far side of the room, having been notified of Bruce's return. "Long night, sir?" As Alfred walked further into the batcave, a file came up on the main computer screen.

To the top left of the screen was a woman's picture. Alfred recognized her as Catwoman by her eyes. He'd only seen one picture of her without her mask on, and that was a while ago. There was a slight wicked curve to her full lips, and her eyes were lit with indifference of her situation. She was beautiful, certainly. But there was a darkness about the woman that was unsettling to Alfred.

"Ah," Alfred said, he came to Bruce's side, "I see Miss Kyle has been apprehended, then." Bruce didn't answer, he was busy looking over the admission data and uploading it to his personal archives.

**Name: Selina Anne Kyle**

**Age: 24**

**Height: 5'6''**

**Weight: 135 lbs**

**Occupation: Professional Jewel Thief**

**Alias: Catwoman**

The file included the first of patient interview recordings, although this one was just of Dr. West. Bruce pushed play and sat back in his chair.

_"_ _Dr. West, entry one. Preliminary questioning revealed something interesting. Every prisoner that is brought in by Batman seems to have serious injuries, and yet Ms. Kyle says neither of her injuries came from him. She was reluctant to talk about it, I'll make a note to ask of it again later. For now, I'll catalogue her account of how she ended up here. The details might be useful to have on hand in the future. Ms. Kyle is hardly what I expected, though I suppose by now I should know better than to have expectations in the first place. She's clearly not like the others; as it was rumored, she seems to be the sanest of the rogues, and I'm confident that she'll cooperate with me. Her potential for rehabilitation is exceptional."_

The recording had just been uploaded to Arkham's database a half hour ago. "Well, he sounds like an optimistic lad," Alfred said, trying to draw Bruce's attention from the screen. Bruce stared at her mug shot with a furrowed, angry brow.

"Any word on the scanner about Falcone?" he asked.

Alfred sighed, "He and his men were taken into custody soon after you departed from the Iceberg lounge, Penguin was taken in for questioning, and the lounge was promptly shut down." Bruce nodded as his fingers went to work on the keyboard, searching through databases and documents.

"Her mother was Maria Kyle, father was Brian Kyle." Bruce pulled up records on the two of them, including Maria's driver's license. For a moment, Bruce thought he'd pulled up Selina's by mistake, but the name read Maria.

The two looked nearly identical, Selina's face had more angular features while her mother's were softer, but they were mirrors of each other otherwise. After a moment's hesitation, Bruce once again began searching through the public records.

He found pieces of things, but nothing really satisfied him. Someone had cleaned up the digital databases very well on anything about the Kyle family. "Master Bruce, I must insist that you get some rest, you've been out all night,"

Bruce's eyes were stinging, and his head felt heavy. He'd been awake since seven this morning, and it was nearly four in the morning now. He really should stay up and try to find out more about Selina to add to his archives, as he had done with every other rogue.

As he continued looking through the files, he felt guilt spread through him. He couldn't think of her in that prison any longer. He rose from his seat and walked toward the platform where the pedestals of Gotham's rogues stood.

As he approached, they all came to life.

He walked past the larger-than-life holograms of Riddler, Killer Croc, and Poison Ivy until he came to Catwoman.

Her image stared down at him with that smug curl to her lip. She was slightly crouched down with her arms extended and claws waiting. Bruce touched a few keys on the pedestal lightly, and her pedestal turned red.

He stared at the banner that appeared at her feet: Captured.

Later that night, or, as it were, morning, Bruce found that regardless of his exhaustion. He couldn't sleep. Her voice teased at his ears, her lips still ghosted over his, and her eyes burned the back of his mind endlessly.

Thinking of her locked away was maddening, and it was only the first night.

Rogues, just as anyone accused of a crime, were given trials.

The trials were usually just shows, however, since their guilt was virtually guaranteed, all that was up for question was how long they would be sentenced.

Selina knew this to be true. She wondered why they even bother with it; they should skip the trial and save the time, along with taxpayer's money. But, if Gotham wanted a show, she'd give it to them.

There was no way she would get off, absolutely no way, so she immediately threw that idea out of her head. She agreed to the public defender she was offered since she figured after she was sentenced and her assets seized, she'd never be able to afford her usual attorney anyway.

Her case was assigned to a young attorney, nearly fresh out of law school whose name was April Fernandez. With her help, a Selina was able to set up the deal she had with Gordon; she'd seen their deal in writing, just as she wanted, and Holly delivered Selina's files shortly after.

Selina's cooperation would have gotten her years off her sentence, until there was a leak.

A low-level nurse inside of Arkham released the information to Gotham newspapers, magazines, news shows, and even GCZ that Catwoman had been caught.

Not only that, but also that the infamous Lady of Larceny was Selina Kyle.

And just for a kicker, the nurse also let it slip that she'd been in direct contact with Gordon, in other words, that she'd turned rat.

The story spread like wildfire and within hours, Selina's face was everywhere.

"And now we return to reports that Catwoman was apprehended _weeks_ ago, and that her capture was kept a secret from the public due to her supposed cooperation with police in regards to other cases-" Vicki Vale was promptly dismissed from her reporting by Bruce's changing channels.

Dick looked over at Bruce with an annoyed expression; that was the third time he'd changed channels in less than four minutes.

The two were sitting on the living room sofa, watching the news as they waited for Alfred to call them in the kitchen for breakfast.

Unfortunately for Dick's nerves, the next show that Bruce flipped to was GCZ. "-told _all_ of you she'd get caught!" the blonde woman screeched triumphantly.

The men ignored her, and one of them held up a photo of Selina, "Whatever man, she's f-ing _hot,_ man." His word was bleeped out, but it was plainly obvious what he said.

The photo he held up was of Selina in a black, tight fitting evening gown. Bruce recognized the fountain behind her as the one outside the Royal Gotham Hotel, and wondered if it was from Markus Yeetz's million-dollar birthday party last year.

"That's not all, though," one man in the back of the room said, "we've also got her mug shot." The man held up a manila folder and he smiled widely as his eyebrows peaked. It was impossible to make out what anyone was saying since the room was filled with several different voices talking over each other.

The blonde woman stood up and ripped the folder from his hands. Dick looked between the screen and Bruce, "Gordon did one bang up job keeping this quiet," he said, "this isn't going to be good for her bargaining idea."

Bruce stared blankly at the screen as the blonde slipped the picture from the folder and stared down at it bitterly, "Okay, no, who photoshopped this?" she held the picture up.

"No one did, that came straight from our source." The man who she took the folder from said.

The woman sneered at him as another man snatched the picture from her hand and looked at it with a smile. "No one looks good in mug shots, _no one._ "

"Yeah, well she _does._ " One of the men staring at the photo said.

"She doesn't even look like she gives a s-." One man laughed. Bruce finally gave up and turned the T.V. off. He rose from his seat and began to walk into the kitchen when Dick spoke up.

"When are we going to talk about this?" he asked. Bruce had told him the events of last night in brief terms as usual. He had tried to act like none of it bothered him. But Bruce never was good enough of an actor to fool him. Dick knew him too damn well.

"We aren't." was Bruce's only reply as he stepped into the kitchen, where Alfred stood, cooking breakfast.

Dick followed Bruce persistently. As Bruce filled his mug with coffee, Dick continued, "She's a thief, Bruce, she'll be out in a few years, at most." Bruce still said nothing, and Dick was losing his patience. Bruce had practically ordered him last night not to go on patrol with him, though now it was clear as to why he'd told him to do so.

Alfred and Dick looked at each other as Bruce sat down at the kitchen table and unfolded the morning's newspaper, the headline of which read:

**Catwoman Captured: Arkahm Welcomes its Newest Rogue**

Bruce ignored the front page and skipped to the business section. Alfred just shrugged at Dick, who was growing more frustrated by the second at Bruce's never ending silence.

Commissioner Gordon walked through the halls of Arkham Asylum the morning. He was lead to a small room that was used for lawyers to talk to their clients.

As he was led inside, he found Selina sitting calmly. "So," she began, "do we have a deal, then?" she asked.

"I'm afraid there's been a complication," Gordon sighed. Selina stared at him blankly, though it was clear in her shoulders she was tense. She waited for him to continue, "it appears that there's been a leak."

Selina's jaw clenched, and she closed her eyes, "How bad?"

Gordon leaned against the far wall of the room, "The news is reporting that Catwoman has been caught,"

"Which means most of my contacts will go underground," she finished bitterly.

"And," he continued, "they're also saying that you've been cooperating with us, providing information." Selina's head snapped up in a stare that seemed to tear into him.

"You-" she bit down on her lip and started again, "you know what this means, don't you? They'll all come after me for this, you get that, right?"

Gordon shook his head, "They won't be able to get to you in here, rogues are kept-"

"And when I get out of here? What then?" her eyes were wide with anger.

"Ms. Kyle," Gordon began, Selina looked away from him.

"No, don't bother. The damage is done. I'll have my associate send over the dirt I have on them, there's no use in me keeping it, and if you can somehow manage to catch them before I get out of here, at least I'll have less people out for my head."

Gordon bit his tongue for a few moments in contemplation, "I remember," he said barely over a whisper.

Selina looked back up at him with anger still clear on her face, though it was dimmed by his words. "I remember where I know you from, and I'm sorry." Selina made no move to speak, so Gordon took his leave.

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_**Author's Note: Alright, so next chapter will be parts of Selina's trial and then we get into Arkham, sorry I promise the story will get moving soon!** _


	5. Gotham's Biggest Show

_**Author's Note: My apologies if this chapter seems rushed, but I have to get going with the storyline. Hopefully you'll enjoy it, though!** _

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Her attorney was barely out of law school, though she didn’t care much. There was no way out of this, and she was done looking for one.

And so, on the first day of her trial, she was driven back into Gotham city, and from there to the courthouse. The ride was less than comfortable; she was stuffed into the back of an armored car with ten- ten- armed men.

Once she arrived at the courthouse and the back doors of the car were opened, she realized why there were so many of them.

In Arkham, she’d been kept in the dark about how the people of Gotham were reacting to her. Now, as she was led out of the car, it was clear that they were fascinated by their resident jewel thief. There were people and cameras everywhere.

She was only glad that she had been allowed to have Holly bring her one of her suits instead of being forced to wear the ugly Arkahm jumpsuit.

She was led through the mob of people, with the ten men on all sides of her. She saw a news helicopter above the courthouse, and reporters shoved microphones between the guards, asking questions she didn’t even bother listening to. It was chaos.

She tried her best to keep a straight face through it, but it was hard.

When she got out of Arkham, she would never be able to find a job, who hires Gotham’s most famous jewel thief? She didn’t even want to think about how many of her contacts would come back and try to kill her for cooperating with GCPD.

As the courthouse’s doors were pulled open, she tried to calm herself down.

Her attorney met her inside as her cuffs were removed, and they walked into the courtroom together.

At her attorney’s advisement Selina had waived her right to a jury, and settled on the decision of a single judge. This way there’s less of a chance of having a skewed jury. Neither the poor nor the rich citizens would look too kindly on a thief, so why take the chance?

Selina had some notion that if she was lucky enough to get a male judge she could at least some charm his way, it’s not like it could hurt, right?

But as the bailiff called out, “All rise! Judge Eleanor Greene proceeding.” Selina held in a chuckle, but looked up, as if asking herself how her luck could get worse.

After she was sworn in under oath, the prosecution began listing off the charges she was being tried on which included several dozen counts of grand larceny, breaking and entering, vandalism, and other things that Selina didn’t even bother listening to.

At the end of the lengthy list, a question pierced her thoughts, “Miss Kyle, in light of these charges, how do you plea?” Selina looked over at one of the television cameras that was trained on her face.

She wondered how many people were watching her trial thinking what a horrible, greedy, distasteful woman she was.

She stared straight into the camera’s lens, unblinking, as her attorney spoke, “Guilty, your honor.”

The courtroom was completely full up with people, some were even standing at the far back, and though the court was holding its limit, the room was dead silent, and all eyes were trained on the Catwoman.

Holly sat back against the couch, which seemed to be the only thing keeping her together. The T.V. was on the news, which would apparently be giving a live view into Selina’s trial on primetime television.

The apartment felt like a shell of what it used to be, the life had been sucked out of it, and Holly felt nothing but cold being there.

Everything of Selina’s had been cleared out by police. They took her combs, cleared out her makeup, obviously snagged her jewelry box, raided her closet and drawers and took nearly all of her clothing, they even took every single picture of her they could find.

Now nothing was left to suggest Selina Kyle had ever stepped foot in the building, let alone lived there for years.

They’d questioned Holly for hours, and she stuck to the plan: she lived with Selina, yes, but she had no idea that Selina and ‘Catwoman’ were the same person. Selina had kept it hidden from her completely.

The police were not completely convinced, but they wouldn’t prove anything and from behind bars Selina told the same story of keeping Holly out of her nightlife.

Holly rubbed her forehead nervously; rent was due next week, and by then she would have to leave and begin the task of making it on her own. She knew exactly what to do; Selina had been thorough in her planning. Holly could do it, she _would_ do it.

But for now, she just wasn’t quite ready yet. Seeing Selina on the screen helped; she was always fearless, and even now she looked as if she was bored more than afraid or worried. Holly sucked in a deep breath; she’d always wanted to be like that; fearless, that is.

Maybe now was her time to start.

Things at Wayne manor were tense to say the least these days.

Bruce was even more shut off than he usually was, he wouldn’t even speak to Alfred about what it was that was bothering him, though it was obvious.

Encounters with Catwoman would always leave him….unsatisfied, but now he was downright miserable.

Dick tried to talk to him about it, which only made things between them worse. When Bruce didn’t want to talk, he wouldn’t. End of story.

In meetings, Lucius noticed that he was often distant, opting to stare out the window or fidget with a pen until the meeting was over. For a few weeks following her arrest, he’d have the T.V. in his office tuned into Catwoman’s trial, although that wasn’t terribly odd since the better half of the building was doing the same.

At night he was different, too.

Criminals were being brought in with more injuries than normal. He was frustrated as hell and whether or not he realized it, he was taking it out on those who he apprehended. Police didn’t notice nor did they care much; they were busy trying to track down all of the criminals that Catwoman provided information on before they went underground.

During the first half of her trial, the prosecution painted Selina as a greedy, slightly disturbed, thief who deserved the maximum sentence the judge would allow. They did a very good job at it, too.

When it finally came time for the defense, the public all but hated Selina to the core.

To start things off, Selina’s attorney rose and walked over to a chart he had standing in the middle of the court. Selina sat plain-faced as he began speaking, “Your honor, I’d like to kick off the defense with a little history,” he said with a smooth and charming voice as he gave the judge a nod before turning to face the crowd, “Ms. Kyle lived nearly her whole life in the East End, and, as I’m sure you’re all aware, it wasn’t the safest place.”

He made his way over toward Selina, with his arm pointing her direction, “In fact, in the year before Selina Kyle first became Catwoman, three out of every four people said that they had been a victim of violence of some sort; assault, rape, robbery, hate related crimes such as vandalism, more counts of assault and battery- I could really go on all day.” The lawyer spread his arms with a dramatic flare and gave an awe-stricken grin as he stared down the judge, “I mean, _three out of every four?_ ” He repeated, letting his point sink in.

He turned toward the packed courtroom in a swift movement and practically rushed toward the audience, “Then, just three years after the first reported Catwoman sighting, that demographic changed from three out of every four residents of the East end being a victim of violence, to two out of every four. That’s a 25% drop.” The camera zoomed in on the preaching lawyer’s face and Selina wondered if the camera really did add ten pounds.

“Miss Kyle was a criminal, yes, but she used her influence to _protect_ people. Your honor, the defense would like to call Mrs. Linda Romero to the stand.” Selina’s brow furrowed, they had never discussed bringing in a witness this early-

Selina looked back as a woman with light blonde hair and a sweet face slowly walked through the courtroom and made her way to the stand. The woman kept eye contact with Selina as long as was possible, and Selina’s poker face disintegrated before the court’s eyes.

The woman was sworn in, but Selina’s mind was caught up in a memory.

“Mrs. Romero,” Selina’s lawyer began, “it is my understanding that on the night of September 19th, four years ago, you encountered Catwoman, now known to be Selina Kyle, is that correct?”

The woman nodded and looked over to Selina with a kind smile, Selina stared back as if she was looking at a ghost, “That is correct.”

“Could you please tell the court about that night?” The lawyer urged.

The blonde woman took a deep breath and looked out on the room. “The night I met Selina Kyle was one I’ll never forget. I was walking home from a late shift at a diner I worked at in the East End, I was saving up to pay off my college loans, so I had to take whatever work I could get at whatever hours I could get it. I was walking home when four men jumped me.” The woman’s eyes slowly filled with tears, as did Selina’s.

“They ripped my clothes off and threw me on the ground next to garbage cans. They raped me and told me they were going to kill me. I kept screaming for help but no one would help me. We were right next to an old apartment building, they could all hear me crying for help, but they did nothing. That’s when she showed up.”

“Um, Mrs. Romero, please specify who ‘she’ is.” The lawyer instructed.

“That woman right there- Selina Kyle. She appeared out of nowhere and pulled them off of me. She knocked them out and got me to the police station. Because of her- because of Miss Kyle, I’m alive and those men are behind bars. I went to counseling for a long time, but I’m alright now. I have a good job, a husband, children,” the woman’s face was turning red and it was clear she was fighting to hold back a sob, “she saved me.” The woman said, staring intently at Selina.

“Thank you, Mrs. Romero,” Selina’s lawyer said as he smiled smugly at the effectiveness of the testimony, “your honor, the defense would ask for a brief recess before we continue on.” The judge considered his request before she nodded her head.

“This court will observe a short recess,” she said, slamming the gavel down, “you have one hour, councilor.” She said the last part almost like a warning.

Bruce sat back in his office chair and let out a heavy sigh as he stared at Selina’s face. Tears were welling up in her eyes and a smile crossed her face when the woman mentioned her children. Bruce grabbed the remote and flipped the television off.

This would all be so much easier if she was a cut throat criminal like the rest of them. But then, if she were like the rest of them, he wouldn’t feel so conflicted with himself for putting her there in the first place.

Damn her.

If she hadn’t have stolen in the first place, he’d have never have had to put her there at all.

Over the course of the next week, several more witnesses were called, all for the purpose of making Selina look like the neighborhood Robin Hood.

Among these witnesses was a policeman who was disarmed by Catwoman and left completely unharmed, same story with a museum guard, Holly Robinson was also called, and lastly, Selina herself. Despite Selina’s refusal to involve Holly, her lawyer disagreed with her and called Holly anyway.

Holly testified that she had no knowledge of ‘Catwoman’, but Selina took her in and gave her a home and a chance.

When Selina took the stand, it was nearly guaranteed that half the country was watching, and hanging on the edge of its seat.

“Miss Kyle,” the prosecution began in a cross examination, “do you regret your actions?”

Selina paused and stared off into the courtroom, really considering the question. Before she answered calmly; “No, I don’t. Not right now, anyway.” Whispers broke out in the court, and Selina clarified, “I don’t mean to sound indifferent about my actions, but I’ve seen only good come of them, so no, I don’t regret doing what I did. I stole in the beginning as a kid on the streets just trying to survive, then I was stealing to pay my way through college, then I was stealing for the hell of it and donating half to charity just because I could. I got myself out of the slum of the east end stealing, I saved myself, and I helped people; I can’t regret that.”

The court fell dead silent as her piercing eyes roamed through the room, “I swore that I would tell nothing but the truth, so there’s your answer. I don’t regret stealing. Ask me again when I’m in Arkham or when I’m free, my answer won’t change.”

The judge was impressed with her honesty, though annoyed by her refusal to admit wrongdoing.

Selina was the last to testify and after witnesses, the defense presented bank records showing that a good portion of the money Selina acquired was donated to several different charities in Gotham.

All in all, it was a good defense, and an even better show for the people of Gotham watching at home. In the end, Selina was sentenced to five years in Arkham Asylum.

And just like that, the trial was over, as was the show.

But Catwoman remained. It seemed that everyone wanted a piece of the jewel thief.

A T.V. advertisement aired where a woman with purple leather gloved hands grinned as her claws encircled a diamond and lifted it from its case. The phrase was “Pidicco diamonds: the purrfect cut.”

Women began dying their hair black and the new ‘ideal’ body type for women became curvier. It was ridiculous, but the city became obsessed. Selina received fan letters, which was absolutely idiotic to her. Who sent a burglar fan mail? Most were from men who just thought she was hot.

She even had a session with Dr. West about it. “Anything interesting today in the mail?” Dr. West asked as she tossed another paper in a trash pile.

“Let’s see, one poor sap asked me to marry him….” She drifted off as she read another letter and began laughing, “And here, this is from an adult film industry that wants me to star in my very own porno, when I get out, titled ‘Katwoman Takes Gotham’, marvelous! From thief to porn star, that sounds thrilling.” Selina tossed the letter into the pile and rolled her eyes.

“Well some people would find the offer flattering,” Dr. West said in an attempt to get her to talk more on the subject.

Selina rubbed her forehead and leaned back in her chair, “That is not flattering. In the least. All that means is that people want to watch me get fucked, and that’s nothing new.” Her voice was serious with a sad edge to it.

Bruce nearly cringed when he listened to the interview tape. “Is there something behind that?” Dr. West asked.

Selina kept her head leaned back and closed her eyes as she rolled her head and relaxed her neck, “In my experience, men either want to fuck me, or want to watch me get fucked over and go down in flames when they realize I won’t sleep with them. Most women I meet just want the second. It’s nothing new.”

“Why do you distrust men so much?” Selina smiled at that.

“Haven’t you read my file?” she asked with acid in her voice, “I’ve got daddy issues.” Selina gave a sour smile and the clip was cut short.

Bruce skipped to the session labeled: ‘Childhood’ and hit play.

“I thought today we could talk about your childhood.” Dr. West suggested.

“Oh good, I needed to vent about all those repressed dark memories. I’ll give you the quick version.” Her sarcasm was clear in her voice. “Let’s see, my mother died in the tub, slit wrists, I found her, my dad became a drunk and beat my sister and me, sometimes nearly to death, but the hospital never seemed to mind fixing us up and sending us back home. I took Maggie and ran away as soon as I was old enough. That’s all.”

“Can you tell me more about your sister? You’ve never mentioned her before.” Selina shrugged.

“Maggie, she was my baby sister, that’s it.”

“In your file it describes you with a maternal instinct, you took care of your sister Holly, you saved Robin-”

“How did you know about that?” she asked quickly.

“There was a security camera that night, it shows you catching Robin and then falling into the alley below. Do you have any children of your own?” Selina grew quiet and looked down at the table.

“No, I haven’t had the pleasure.” She answered quietly. “I just had to take care of Maggie, that’s all.”

“How did you have to take care of her?”

“After my mom died, my dad was a drunk, like I said. And he was a mean one.” Selina’s voice was quiet and her eyes were distant, “He used to come home from the bar and beat us for a few hours till he finally passed out for the night. Maggie was so small and thin- I used to lock her in the closet so he couldn’t get to her.”

“And did you hide?” Selina shook her head.

“If we both hid it was worse. That’s how we ended up in the hospital, by hiding.”

“So you took the brunt of it so that your sister didn’t have to?”

“There wasn’t really any other option.” She said, feeling the need to change the subject quickly, she continued, “I would go out and steal food from grocery stores, sometimes I would pickpocket people for money to buy food. When I got good enough at it, I took Maggie and we ran away. Our dad drank himself to death while we were living in an old abandoned building in the North end.”

“Then what happened?”

Selina shrugged, “I tried enrolling us both in school; the school contacted the authorities and we were sent off to the orphanage. I was like thirteen by then. Maggie was adopted right away, she was young and sweet, perfect for adoption.”

“And you?”

“It was too late for me by then, I was mean and bitter. I didn’t trust people and that was . The orphanage mistress hated me, she beat me nearly as often as dear old dad did, though never quite as thoroughly. She preferred starvation as punishment. That was fun.”

“It said in your file you ran away from the orphanage?” Selina let out a huff of a laugh.

“Is that what it says? Figures,” she looked to the side for a moment, “I would’ve run, don’t get me wrong, but the headmistress kept that place locked up, chains and bars and everything. One night her hired helpers grabbed me from my bed and threw me in a sack. They tied it off and threw me in the Gotham river.” Selina rolled her eyes and, “Pffft, orphanages, am I right?”

“They tried to kill you? And cover it up by reporting you as a runaway?”

“And you wonder why I don’t trust the system.” The tape cut off but a link to case files popped up. Bruce clicked on them and was led to an old abuse case.

Pictures of two young girls popped up, both bruised and bleeding. Bruce clicked on the picture showing Selina and the image zoomed in. She was obviously emaciated, her collar bone looked as if it might cut through her skin.

One of her eyes were swollen shut, and her lip was twice this size it should’ve been. The picture of her sister was not as bad, probably since Selina protected her, but the girl, Maggie, was skeletal and bruised all the same.

Bruce saw that Gordon was assigned to the case, but was forced to drop it due to some legal technicality.

Alfred walked up behind Bruce and looked at the pictures of the girls as Bruce looked through them. “Oh dear,” he said, his voice drifting off as in one picture Selina’s ribs are shown to be bruised so badly her skin looked black.

The worst of it all was the look in her eye; a combination of hate, pain, fear, and anger. Bruce knew it well.

“The police did nothing, sir?” Alfred questioned.

“The police were crooked back then, Alfred,” Bruce said, his tone darker than usual as he stood and pulled his cowl over his head, “their father probably paid them off.” He said as he made his way to the batmobile. “I’ll be in the East End,” he sat himself behind the wheel and in moments was off through the tunnels.

Alfred stared at the picture of the child; the cold glare was a perfect reflection of the look in Bruce’s eyes for many years after his parents’ deaths.

* * *

_**Author's Note: I'll try very hard to update this more regularly, but thank you for sticking with me, it's much appreciated!!!** _


	6. Broken Silence

**_Author's Note: Hello everyone! I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long, as I said, I'm going to try to update this more often! So here we are._ **

**_While I was playing Arkham Asylum and I was collecting all the interview tapes, I always wondered why there were no Catwoman tapes, and I wondered what would be on them if there had been some in the game. I wanted to incorporate these into the story._ **

**_I hope I didn't make any major mistakes because I'm far too lazy to read everything all over again._ **

**_Hopefully they don't seem repetitive or anything. Enjoy!_ **

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Bruce typed away the last few details of tonight's ventures before he closed the case file of yet another captured assailant.

It'd been two years since Selina's trial and things in Gotham were surprisingly slow. He hadn't had a rogue encounter in months and even petty crime was slowing down. He would normally pay no mind to it, but something was off.

All the rogues, save the ones currently incarcerated, were keeping unusually quiet. Even Joker had dropped off the radar. Needless to say, he was on edge about it.

Bruce sat back in his chair and rubbed his forehead for a minute. So much had changed in those two years, for Bruce and Selina both.

The tension between Bruce and Dick had finally come to a head about a month after the trial, and things did not end well.

After a night of once again playing the sidekick, Dick had had enough. If Bruce wouldn't give him a chance to prove himself, then he had nothing more to do in Gotham. He'd said as much to Bruce, after he'd landed a punch on his unsuspecting mentor.

When Bruce got back from patrol that night, Dick was long gone.

Bruce picked up his trail and discovered that Dick had gone to Bludhaven, and was still fighting crime, though now under the name of 'Nightwing'.

Bruce kept tabs on him, watching from a distance. Dick was doing good work, Bruce had to admit that much. Alfred had suggested, both to Bruce and Dick, to reach out to one another, but neither made an attempt. Mostly just from stubbornness.

About a year after Dick's departure, a new Robin emerged.

Tim Drake was to become the new boy wonder, and when Dick saw the headlines about Batman and Robin once again fighting together, he wished the kid luck dealing with the old bat. God knows he needed it.

As for Selina, she wasn't adjusting very well, but then again, who would? It was Arkham, after all.

She would wake up in the morning, sit in her cell and wait for breakfast to be delivered to her. Then sit in her cell some more, reading whatever books they allowed her to have and wait till it was her mid-day interview session. After that, she was returned to her cell to wait will dinner and after that she had her second session of the day. Then it was bed time.

Repeat that a couple times and it gets dull, and she had a whole 'nother three years of it.

Bruce often listened to her interview tapes when he had the chance, and had been doing so quite often lately. He opened the file and clicked on the session titled "Batman1".

"I was wondering something," Dr. West's voice cut in. "All other inmates seem to be swearing they'll kill him in any number of ways. Yet you haven't said a thing of him since you've arrived."

"I don't say anything of him because what I have to say is the unpopular opinion. And when you have an unpopular opinion surrounded by those who oppose said opinion, it's usually smart to keep quiet." Selina replied.

"And what is this unpopular opinion of yours?" Dr. West urged her on.

Selina sighed and folded her arms, "You must be new to Gotham." She mumbled, "When I was growing up, this city was so corrupt no one knew where to begin cleaning it up, and no one cared to. He's the best thing to happen to it in a long, long time."

"That is….a surprising attitude, seeing as how he's the reason you're here."

"He's not the reason I'm here, Doc, I'm fully aware of that. He's just the boatman."

"The 'boatman'? As in Greek mythology? The boatman who sailed the hell-bound souls to the underworld?"

"Precisely." Selina said, sounding rather pleased.

"I have to say, I wasn't expecting that. You actually approve of him? Even with your less than legal activities?"

"Well we can't have things like Joker, Croc, and Bane running lose, now can we? Think of it this way: they're black, everyone in here is black, people like you, you're all white. I'm a shade of gray, but to keep order and maintain control, I have to be grouped in with the black. I understand the system, doc, I've been in it all my life. Anyway, getting back on topic, Batman is necessary." Selina paused for a long moment.

"If he were around when I was growing up," she said slowly, "maybe I wouldn't be like this." The recording cut off, and Bruce clicked the next one: "Batman2".

"Good evening, Selina," Dr. West said on the tape.

"What's up, doc?" Selina said in a semi tired voice.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Let's just get this over with, I'm not in the mood for pleasantries tonight. So what do you want to talk about? My childhood again? Why I like shiny, expensive things? Take your pick."

"Actually, tonight I'd like to talk about Batman."

Bruce could practically see her roll her eyes. "Everything always comes back to Batman, I'm getting the feeling you're using me to get to him." She said, feigning a pout.

"I have to admit that I am curious about him, but most everyone in this city _is_. And _you_ are the rogue most familiar with him, it seems."

"I don't know about that. But if you must, go ahead." She mumbled.

"Do you know who he is?"

Selina burst out laughing at that. "Yeah, lemme just call him up real quick and ask." she managed between laughs.

"I take it that's no," Dr. West said plainly.

"Why would you even ask? I mean even if I did, which I don't, why would you think I'd bother sharing it with you?"

"Honestly, I didn't think that you'd know. I wanted to see your reaction. And judging from that, you don't know who he is and the fact that you don't know bothers you. Why else would you overreact like that unless you were trying to cover something up?"

There was a silence before he continued, "The question is; why _does_ it bother you? No one else knows, so there's no reason for you to feel annoyed by this, unless you consider yourself in a special situation that makes you feel you have a right to know."

"No, I don't. The bat is a mystery, even to me." Selina's voice was a bitter mumble.

"What do you mean 'even to you'?" Dr. West persisted.

Selina fixed her slip of the tongue easily, "Well, you insisted that I was the rogue closest to him, at least not getting beaten to a pulp by him. _That's_ what I mean. Are we quite done?"

"I suppose we are." The recording cut short, and Bruce looked through the archive of the sessions.

An entire list was separated from the rest, labeled "Bat"

Bruce played the next one in that list.

"Good morning, Selina. How are you?"

"Very well, thank you." She said warmly.

"You seem to be in a good mood, why's that?"

"Well, today is the first day of October, and I love October. This year I don't even have to go to a haunted house, I'm already in my own freak show right here, in fact, it's like Halloween all year long!"

"You like Halloween, then?"

"I _love_ it. Made me feel at home running along the rooftops in costume. You know once I actually wore my suit to some socialite's party? The ironic part was that I'd stolen from that very house the party was held at."

"You seem very proud of that."

"It was a good heist. But I love Halloween for a number of reasons. I get to run freely without question. I love the shadows, the scares, the monsters lurking in the dark-"

"Like Batman?"

Selina sighed audibly, and shook her head, "You haven't seen him, have you?" she paused, "I don't know why everyone's so afraid of him. He's just a man. They call him a devil, a demon, yadda yadda yadda, but I know better. He's a man, just like you. Just a lil bigger. And a lil darker. And more broody, too."

"Were you ever afraid of him?"

"Well, he certainly was a sight the first time. I thought he was a myth for years, I actually triggered a sensor on purpose to finally meet him."

"You purposefully lured him to you? Just so you could meet him?"

Selina chuckled, "Well, I'm actually not sure who lured who. He got there so quickly, I think he actually might've been already there. I have no idea. He won that night, anyway."

"What do you mean, 'he won'?"

"We had this sort of game, I steal something, he chases me, tries to get it back. If he got it away from me, then he obviously wins. But if I get away, I win."

"And is this how _he_ saw your encounters?"

"Probably not." She said plainly.

"You aren't sure?"

"Well I did ask him once if he enjoyed our games. He said, in a very flat, unenthusiastic voice: 'No.' So there's that."

The session ended and another topic caught Bruce's eye. At the middle of the list of entries, one was titled "Psych." Bruce knew he really should be getting to bed, he had to be at the office even earlier than usual, but he hit play anyway.

"So, doc," Selina began, "you've been interviewing me for quite some time now,"

"It's been a year and a half," he interrupted.

"Wow, that long? Anyway, so like I was saying, you've been interviewing me, digging your little shrink way into my head. I want to know what you've come up with."

"Selina-"

"Don't 'Selina' me, I want to know what your fancy little phycology degree has granted you in way of insight. So, go ahead, do your little shrink thing, and let's see how good you really are." Selina's voice was cheery, smug, but it held an almost threatening undertone that dared him to speak.

Dr. West sighed loudly, "If you insist," he flipped through his papers and began, "You grew up in the worst part of Gotham, you found your mother's dead body, which traumatized you. Shortly after, your father began beating you and your sister. This is where your distrust of men began. In an effort to protect your sister, you hid her from him and took the beatings yourself, this strengthened your maternal instinct."

Dr. West breathed in and continued, "Sometime around then is where 'Catwoman' began. I believe she is an alter you created to protect yourself, and to rationalize what you've done all these years was necessary to survive."

"You think I have multiple personalities?" Selina asked, finding the idea entertaining.

"Not multiple, just the one. Just Catwoman."

"Sorry to break it to you, doc. You're wrong. I _am_ Catwoman, she's not an extra, she's all me."

"Hmm," Dr. West thought for a moment. "no; I believe she is an alter, you just may be integrated. Integrated is when the alters, or alter, in your case, have blended seamlessly into you. There have been cases where people with multiple personalities don't remember having them in the first place."

Selina thought for a moment before speaking, "You know doctor, you may be right, or you may be wrong. I don't see that there is a way to prove one way or another."

"No, no, there isn't." Dr. West agreed.

The recording cut off, and Bruce looked over the titles of the session tapes. One in particular caught his eye: "Love".

Bruce hit play and sat back in his chair as it began. "Selina, do you believe in love?" Dr. West asked calmly.

"Why, doctor!" Selina said in a southern belle accent, "I had no idea you felt that way!"

"Please, Selina, be serious."

"Well someone is a bit grouchy today, hmm? Fine, I'll cut you a break. What was the question? Do I believe in 'love'?" the last word poured from her mouth like acid. Dr. West gave a faint reply and Selina sighed.

"I do. Parents sure seem to love their little bundles of brat well enough. And I have Holly, and of course, Isis. So, yes, I believe in love."

"Those loves were mainly maternal and familial love, what about romantic love? Do you believe in that?"

"To an extent." She answered curtly.

"What do you mean? True love isn't really true?" Dr. West questioned.

"No, I think that two people really can be meant for each other, but that doesn't mean they will ever even meet each other nor does it mean they can or will be together."

"And have _you_ ever been in love?" Dr. West asked.

Selina hesitated, "I sure hope not. You've heard the 'opposites attract' spiel, right? Well, opposites may attract, but that does _not_ mean they're compatible."

"Speaking from experience?"

"Perhaps."

The recording cut off and Bruce was left with silence. He told himself he'd listen to just one more, and then he'd be off to bed. He skimmed through the titles, trying to make the most of his final choice. There was one in particular that he couldn't resist. "Cat: Origin"

"So, why 'Catwoman'?" Dr. West asked.

"That," Selina began, "is a semi-long story that I have actually never told." She spoke slowly, as if she was just realizing that for the first time.

"Won't you tell it, then?"

Selina was quiet for a few moments, but carried on. "Well, let's see…sometime after high school and into my first year of college, I stopped stealing. I wanted to try to make it on my own for a change. I was maybe…18? I got this job as a bartender at some scummy downtown bar and I worked nights so I could go to daytime classes."

"You got a job in a bar at 18?" Dr. West sounded surprised.

"No one cared how old I was, pay attention to the important stuff cuz I'm not repeating this. Anyway, so I was working one night, the place was mostly empty, except for some of the less than savory regulars, when a man walks in. He had a long coat on, probably to hide the handgun he had on his belt. He walked right up to me and aimed it at my chest. He was screaming about money, but I could barely hear him. I was too busy trying to remember how far down the shotgun under the bar was."

"That seems risky," Dr. West noted.

Selina laughed and nodded, "Yeah, well, it _did_ get me killed, after all."

"What?"

"Big time. When he turned his back to threaten some of the customers, I reached for the gun. Unfortunately, he turned just as I got it in my hand. I pretty much just fell to the floor, you'd be surprised how much a bullet just under the clavicle can hurt. Everyone in the place ran, he jumped over the bar, stole what was in the register, and left me in a pool of blood."

"I tried to push myself up, but it hurt too damn much. So, I laid there, and finally, I couldn't stay awake any longer. I closed my eyes, and that was it. I died. There was no light, it was just dark and quiet. It didn't hurt anymore, either. But I was pulled back by something. I just shot back in my body, and I opened my eyes to find Isis licking the blood off my face."

"Isis? Your cat, Isis?" he sounded completely lost.

"Yes," Selina said plainly.

"Is that how you found her?"

Selina hummed and shook her head. "That's how she found me. Isis is no ordinary cat; she's quite special."

"How do you mean?"

"She's brought me back a few times now," Selina said calmly, "but never mind that now. When I woke up, I dragged myself to the emergency phone under the bar and called 911, since nobody else had seemingly bothered to. You know what's funny though? When I was recovering in the hospital, the cops actually almost filed charges against me for working in a bar when I was underage." Selina broke off for a moment, "Well, let's just say after that, I didn't feel bad about going back to my previous profession. The system never did me any favors, and I figured it owed me."

The recording cut off, and Bruce forced himself from his chair. He left the computer on, with Selina's mugshot on the screen. Her lips were curled into a smile that could give mona lisa a run for her money.

* * *

 

The very next night, all that peace and quiet that had been making Bruce nervous was finally shattered, by none other than the Joker himself.

But unlike all other Joker encounters, this one was different. He'd barely put up a fight, and was captured all too easily. It made Bruce wary.

And so, Batman insisted on following the Joker through processing. The clown made his usual cracks as he was led through the security checkpoints while being strapped to a gurney.

But when they reached the end of processing, the doctors thought it best not to let Batman through the halls, else the inmates get wiled up by his presence.

And of course, that's when the Joker made his move.

In the very next room, just past the locked security gate, Joker broke free of his constraints, and killed the guard and doctor escorting him.

He pranced around the bodies, cackling madly. He stopped and pointed at the next door, "Honey, I'm ho-ome!" he sang.

Harley's voice came over the loud speaker, "Come on in!" she said cheerily. The lasers covering the door on the far side of the room were disabled for him as Gordon tried to unlock the door.

Batman finally managed to burst through the window and make it inside the room just as Joker had ran through the doorway on the far side just before Harley enabled the lasers behind him, leaving Batman in a room with cells full of angry inmates.

Joker turned around and faced Batman as the cells all opened and the inmates all surrounded him, grinning and pounding their fists into their palms. "Welcome to the madhouse, Batman! I set a trap, and you sprang it gloriously! Now let's get this party started…"

* * *

 

Far on the other side of the prison, Selina was laying on her bed with her hands tucked under her head staring up at the concrete ceiling above her. She did this whenever she wasn't quite ready to sleep, or was just generally bored, as was so often the case. Everything was silent, just as she liked it. In moments like these, she could almost feel content in Arkham.

Little did she know, her relative peace and quiet would soon be shattered, and she would be thrown into a living hell.

* * *

 

**_Author's Note: Okay, so I know it took forever to actually get into the main storyline, but here we are! Next time the Joker's plan will begin to unravel, but what will that mean for Batman and Selina?_ **

**_Thank you for all your favs, follows, and reviews! Let me know what you think of this chapter in that happy little box below!_ **


	7. Code Green

_**Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, here's the next chapter!** _

* * *

Selina jumped up, her heart racing at the sudden screeching of an alarm. The bright fluorescent lights of the hallway leading to her cell shut off, leaving only the emergency red flashing lights to see by.

The guards in her hall listened closely as the automated voice announced a seemingly endless rambling of compromised cell blocks, followed by: "Warning: Code green, Warning: Code yellow."

Selina froze, and her heart sank.

In Arkham, they only had codes names after rogue inmates. Anything else and the recording would just say "Warning: Breach in A block," or something like that.

Each code was named after a rogue's hair color.

Code black was Selina, code brown was Eddie, code red was Ivy. In cases where there was no clear hair color, the codes were more original. Code two was Two face, code clay was Clayface, and code croc was Killer Croc.

Code green and yellow meant Joker and Harley. Which meant tonight was about to take a turn for the worse.

There were two guards stationed in Selina's hall at all times, armed with little more than police batons, a taser, a pistol, and riot gear.

In other words, were Selina out of her cell, she would be done with them in under two minutes, max.

But this wasn't Selina that was loose. This was Joker. And he wouldn't just leave them unconscious as she would have.

The guards looked at each other. The older one, Hanson, was a hard headed man, Selina had been around him long enough to know that. The younger one, Perez, was new to Arhkam, and he was still jumpy, that's probably he was guarding her in the first place instead of some of the more unpleasant rogues.

"Hanson, get him out of here," Selina said in an almost trancelike state. Her eyes were staring absently at the door at the end of the hall.

Hanson jogged to the security console next to the door, "Get back against her cell!" he told Perez. Perez took out his pistol and stood with his back to Selina, who was standing and watching the two men.

"Code green?" Perez asked, his voice shaking with inexperience, "T-that's Joker, right?"

Hanson didn't answer him, just kept on trying to lock down the door at the security console.

"Yeah," Selina said behind the glass, "that's Joker."

On the other side of the room, Hanson punched the screen in frustration, "The console isn't responding," he ground as he drew his pistol. He jogged back to the cell and fixed his sights on the door.

"Hanson, listen to me: get out of here, go find Cash and the other guards, figure out what's happening and take it from there. You _can't_ stay here." Selina said, her voice deathly serious.

"What makes you so sure he'll come this way? Hmm?" Hanson questioned, unconvinced.

"Because," she began, "I know him."

Perez looked back at her, his eyes full of worry. "Maybe we shou-" he began.

"Keep your eyes on the door, Perez." Hanson ground the words between his teeth and spat them out as he stared down the hall.

"Listen to me!" Selina yelled as she pressed against the glass. "You _cannot_ stay here! You need to get out while you still can!" Selina slammed her fist against the glass.

Neither men looked back at her, and an abundance of echoing laughs and raged shouts rang through the hallway, getting closer and closer to the door.

Perez sucked in a breath, but steadied himself. "Last chance, Hanson," Selina said quietly.

"Too late now," the man replied as the riot sounded from just the other side of the door. Seconds later, the automatic door opened, and inmates poured in, though they kept their distance and made sure not too close to the armed guards.

The only light in the room was the red emergency lights, which bathed the room in an eerie crimson, leaving too many shadows for comfort, and making the inmates look like monsters waiting for a chance to attack.

The inmates shouted at the guards, calling out obscenities at both of them and Selina in turns. Suddenly a loud, all too familiar cackling voice rang out from the back of the room. "Comin' through, comin' through!" the voice broke off in laughter as the crowd at the back began to part, allowing the man to make his way to the front. "GET OUTTA THE WAY!" the voice screamed.

The crowd finally broke fully, and a guard was pushed out into the open, where he stumbled and fell to the ground just in front of the horde of inmates. An inmate with a shotgun appeared behind him, and held the gun down toward the man, warning the guards not to fire, or their friend was dead. Joker finally appeared, another shotgun resting on his shoulder behind his head.

Hanson and Perez stiffened as they took in the sight of the clown prince and his army of criminals. The inmates grew silent as he spoke; "Catty, babe! How ya been?" his mere voice sent a shiver up her spine.

"Joker," she said in a low acknowledgement, "what are you doing?" she had no idea what to say or what to do. If she said the wrong thing, Hanson and Perez were dead. Along with the guard curled up on the floor.

But then again, it was the Joker, so they were probably already dead no matter what she said or did to change that.

"I thought it was obvious!" the clown opened his arms and motioned to the mob behind him, "We're having a party!" he turned back towards her, still disregarding the guards altogether.

"What are you talking about? What party?" she asked, trying to stall him as her mind raced with the possible outcomes of this situation. She'd met the Joker only a handful of times, but she'd seen enough of his massacres to know that there was no way this would end even remotely okay.

"Why, it's a surprise party!" he exclaimed with glee before his voice took a dark, menacing tone, "You'll just have to figure the rest out on your own." He nodded to the inmate with the shotgun.

"No, no ple-" the guard was cut off when the inmate pulled the trigger, splattering a mixture of brain tissue and blood against the white tile floor.

Everything moved in slow motion and Selina was paralyzed as Joker raised his shotgun toward a stunned Hanson, and pulled the trigger. His blood covered the bulletproof glass of her cell, and she winced at the sight and sound it made as Hanson's lifeless body fell to the floor.

Perez screamed as Joker, ever the quick predator that he was, swatted the gun out of his hand, kneed him in the gut, and pushed him into the angry horde of inmates, who began to mercilessly beat him with their makeshift weapons.

Joker looked at Selina through the blood splattered glass with a wide, horrifying grin. Selina stared at him in shock. "Consider this your personal invitation," he said in the same menacing tone he'd used before. He reached into his jacket and slapped something onto the glass before laughing loudly and retreating back through the crowd.

Selina looked at the object and her eyes went wide with realization. She recognized it as a bomb, with the electronic number counting down from :05.

She turned and flipped her bed over and pushed its metal frame into the corner before she jumped behind it to shield herself from the blow. Just as she got behind the bed, the bomb went off, sending glass and smoke through the air.

Small glass pieces peppered her skin, covering her in small cuts. The force of the blast had forced her onto the floor. Her ears were ringing, her head was heavy, and her lungs filled with smoke with each breath she took. She desperately tried to push herself up as she heard the Joker's voice one last time: "Bring her!"

Moments later, the bed was flipped out of the way, and two massive inmates hauled her up by her arms, "Let's go, pussy," one said, leering at her as she was drawn to her feet and practically dragged out of the cell.

Selina would've hissed at his words, but suddenly she was lead into the very center of the horde, being whistled at and grabbed everywhere from every direction. She couldn't fight them, not this many, not in this small of a space.

She kicked and thrashed at their hands, managed to hurt a few of them and certainly didn't make it easy for those holding her to keep their grip. "You're gonna get what's comin' to ya," one of her escorts said as he tightened his grip on her.

"Fuck you." She replied, thrashing her arm away from him a bit. He laughed a bit before using his other hand to grab her chin and force her to look at him.

"Oh, the things I'm gonna do to you." Selina's eyes stared coldly at him as she recognized the scars on his face. The scars that she gave to any rapists she came across. That was her mark.

She couldn't help but laugh in his face. "You should be more concerned with what I'm gonna do to _you._ You think you're ugly now? Just wait." She hissed.

He let go of her face and landed a hard slap across her face that made her stumble a bit. She was still shaken from the blast, and that slap definitely didn't help. Her vision went black for a few moments as he chuckled.

Batman raced through the halls, quickly neutralizing the few inmates he came across with practiced ease. "Oracle, see if you can hack into the camera feed, I need to get a fix on where Joker is headed exactly." He said into his headset as he rounded a corner and threw a batarang at an unsuspecting inmate.

Quickly running up behind the other, Batman landed a perfect strike before getting the other in a chokehold and knocking him out. "Okay," Barbara chimed on the other end, "let me see….Wow, they have a serious loophole in their firewall, I'm in already."

"That's probably how Joker took over the asylum in the first place." Batman said.

"Yeah," Oracle agreed, "he's let almost everyone in the entire asylum out," she said as she scanned through all of the camera feeds, "you've got a long night ahead of you…..Got him! He's heading out of the rogue wing…." Batman's heart dropped. _Selina._ "Oh my God," Oracle gasped, "He let all of the rogues out, they're not in their cells! That lunatic-" Her voice cut off suddenly.

"What is it?" he asked, fear rising within him. All he could think of was Selina. Maybe she got out, got away from this mess.

Oracle's answer smashed any hope he had. "Bruce, he has Selina."

"Where is he headed?" he demanded.

"He practically has an army with him, Bruce you can't just storm in there-"

"Oracle, _he has her._ I can't sit around and wait for him to make his move. Where is he headed?"

Barbara watched the Joker's movements as he came to a wide open area on the other side of the asylum from Batman. "He's in the North quarter, it looks like he's slowing down, kind of. Listen, you need to be careful, dealing with Joker is one thing, a riot is another, and a riot with the rogues out is a whole 'nother level. I think you should consider getting help on this one."

Batman took off running through the halls, heading toward the North quarter. "No, I can handle this. I don't need him." He replied.

"When are you two going to get over this?" Oracle asked, exasperated at the fact that he'd rather take on every monster in that place than talk to Dick.

"Oracle, _not now._ " Batman barked over the com line.

Just as he passed a TV that was hanging on the wall, it came to life, with Harley's squeaking voice. "Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?" she asked as she tapped the camera. Her torso was all that could be seen, but mostly only her breasts in the tight nurse outfit she wore.

She backed up and smiled widely, "Hiya, B-man!" she squealed and waved, "Woa, you look mad!" she said in a giggle, "Glad _I'm_ not down there with you!"

"What do you want, Quinn?" He practically growled.

A shiver ran up her back, "Geez, always straight to business, this guy!" she said to someone off screen. "Why don't we start with something nicer, like, oh! Do you like my new outfit?" she asked, twirling around in a circle, giving him a view of her tight corset, short shirt, and thigh high boots.

"No." he answered flatly, "What do you want?" he repeated.

Harley sighed and rolled her eyes, "Fine, we'll do it your way." The woman was visibly deflated by his refusal to play along with her. "As I'm sure you know, Mista J is havin' his homecomin' party! Oh a _nd_ the rogues are havin' a party for our newest member! It's a two for one deal!" the screen flipped to an image of Selina being led down a hallway with inmates holding both her arms as she thrashed against their holds on her. "That's right, kitty is getting a formal introduction!" Harley said in a smitten tone. "Aww, kitty!"

"Gotta love that kid," Harley cooed, "she's a scrapper! Anyway, Mista J wanted me to let you know that you're invited! I mean, what kind of party would it be without the one who brought all together!?" she sighed loudly and folded her arms over herself, "And led me to my puddin'!" she said dreamily.

Batman gritted his teeth, "Quinn, whatever you have going on here, I'm putting an end to it. Now." He took out a batarang and threw it at the security camera pointed at him.

"Hey!" Harley exclaimed, "Now that's just rude! If you saw what Mista J had cookin' I bet you'd be a lot nicer to me!" she said with a huff.

Batman shook his head and took back off down the halls. Whatever Joker had planned, he needed to end it. Fast. Before things got worse.

And before Selina got hurt.

Whether Bruce wanted to admit it or not, he did have a problem. A problem trusting others. A problem relinquishing control and letting someone else have a bit for themselves.

That's what pushed Dick away to Bludhaven, and that's the reason the two of them still weren't past it. How can you be partners, or even be friends, when there's no trust?

Unfortunately, it seemed that another one of Bruce's partners was going down the same road. When Batman had apprehended the Joker tonight, he had ordered Robin to go home on his motorcycle and leave the rest to him.

And that's honestly what Tim had planned on doing. He wasn't happy about it, but he was going to do it. Until he heard on the police scanner about Arkham, and, well, he couldn't resist the opportunity to prove himself to Bruce.

He'd been Batman's sidekick for…for…he couldn't remember how long, but it was time for him to prove himself, and this was his chance!

It doesn't have to be mentioned that poor Tim never did hear too much in way of why Dick and Bruce parted ways. All he knew was the bare minimum: it was a partnership that soured, so they ended it. Bruce never said much about it. If he had, maybe Tim wouldn't have made the mistake of going to the asylum in the first place.

So here Tim was, staring up at the asylum with a wide, determined grin as he put the kickstand down and turned the engine off. He parked right next to the batmobile and sucked in a deep breath as he took the first few steps toward the massive asylum door and pushed it open, not knowing what was waiting for him on the other side.

* * *

_**Author's Note: Sorry, it was pretty short, but I feel like it would be best if I ended it here instead of cramming a bunch of stuff together. Anyway, so this chapter was kind of dark, but I think it turned out pretty well, let me know what you all think!** _


	8. Chapter 8

Dawn was just breaking over Gotham. The black sky was slowly being lightened into a deep purple. Selina could just barely see the sky out of the front doorway of Arkham Asylum, the doors themselves lay on the tile floor, having been ripped off its hinges.

She walked towards the opening in a daze, not knowing what she was moving toward, not knowing what her next move would be. The chill of the air was enough to keep her moving towards the freedom of the doorway.

Her legs shuffle down the hall with a limp. Blood dripped down her forehead from her hair, which was freshly chopped off.

Her hands clutched at her abdomen as crimson leaked through her fingers.

Green eyes stared blankly ahead as bruised lips trembled and pained ears heard only the sound of distant alarms ringing.

First step into the open air, and Selina stopped. Standing there at the top of the concrete steps, Selina finally dropped.

She was tired, and cold. She recognized both as signs she was bleeding out quickly. She felt the rough coldness of the concrete on her back as she stared up at the sky. Tears filled her eyes absent minded as she watched the usual bursts of steam pour out of the buildings in the distance.

Her vision faded out to black.

She always hated this part.

All the pain was still there, all the sounds, all the feeling, but the world was dark and lonely.

She heard a familiar voice yelling for her from down the Arkham hallway she had emerged from. She listened to his boots slap against the smooth concrete as he neared her. She imagined he could only see her lower half from her position on the stoop.

“Selina,” he said again, his breathing labored. She  imagined he must have had been running for some time to have caught up with her.

She smiled warmly in the direction of the voice, even as she felt the warmth of the tears rolling down her cheeks and as she tasted the blood running from her nose.

“Hey, baby bird.” She said, wishing she could see his face. There was nothing she could do to hide the pain in her voice, though she gave it her best try.

She felt the heat roll off of him as he knelt down beside her. “I’m not the baby bird anymore, remember?” He asked, trying his best to play along.

_Bless his heart._ Selina thought. _Would it be too cheesy to say you’d always be the baby bird to me?_

“Oh, right, how could I forget?” She said. He reached down under her shoulder gently, and repeated the same motion with her legs.

“I have to get you help.” he said. Selina felt him slowly lift her up, holding her close to his chest. She felt as though her skin was tearing as he raised her from the ground. She felt more tears well in her eyes.

Her limbs were going numb, her heartbeat was slowed, she felt herself drifting away.

All things considered, bleeding out was one of the most peaceful ways to go.

* * *

 

**6 Hours Earlier**

 

Selina stared up at the maniac smiling just inches from her face. She was close enough to bash her head against his and quiet that ridiculous laughing, and she would have too, had it not been for the two thugs holding her arms behind her back far enough to cause a good deal of pain, not that she would show it.

“So, Kitty,” Joker said, growing ever closer, “you ready for your big night?”

Selina spit in his face, and Joker snapped his head back away from her. Joker turned back as he wiped his cheek with his worn purple suit sleeve. His face was twisted in anger now. His eyes were filled with an empty darkness.

Before she knew it, Joker’s fist struck her cheek. The two men holding her dropped her to the tile floor. Her head was spinning from the impact, but she quickly tried to recover.

She looked up and caught sight of Joker heading toward the door on the far side of the room. "Have fun with that one, boys! Oh, but please don't have _too_ much fun with her, leave some for me!" Inmates lined the entire perimeter of the room, circling her in the center.  
“Right,” she said, slowly pushing herself to her feet, “let’s get this over with, then.” Selina stood and eyed up the men who were slowly closing in on her.


	9. Sour Reunion

_**Author's Note:** _

_**Let's just dive right in, shall we? Hope you all enjoy.** _

* * *

Selina looked around the large room and only the waves of orange jail suits. As she stood in the center of the room, everything slowed.

She was used to this scenario, she'd been in it too many times to count. Always surrounded and outnumbered, she was never truly outmatched, and tonight was no different. The hoard circled around her, several of them carrying makeshift weapons like pipes and metal bars that they had ripped from the walls.

Selina took a few deep breaths to steady her breathing and ready herself. She'd been up against worse odds, she silently reminded her shaky hands.

The only thing that was different this time was that there was no escape; no rooftop to jump from, no window to smash through, just a huge metal door on the far side of the room, behind quite a few waves of inmates hungry for a fight.

Selina kept a careful watch on all sides of her as they inmates began closing in. Some came at her faster than others, she smiled at this realization, this gave her opportunity. As one or two came in close, she could prioritize them and ignore the others, it was the perfect tactic for them to use, from her standpoint.

Their shouts and taunts were drowned out as the first two came sprinting at her, one wielding a pipe, the other unarmed. Selina's muscle memory took over, and she began to move with little to no thought. She took out the armed one first, as he posed the biggest threat. A very simple dodge roll and hard punch to the jaw sent him to the ground, though likely not for long. No matter.

Selina grabbed the pipe from the downed inmate's hands and landed a hard hit to the other's temple. He hit the ground and his body went completely limp, she took this moment to land a final kick to the other's vulnerable head, knocking him out.

She gripped the pipe firmly in her hand and assessed the area around her. Several inmates were rushing her, while others seemed to be more wary after she had made short work of the first two.

Selina counted three immediate threats, and two secondary ones coming within range, all from different sides of her; there was no way to line up an attack.

She waited for a few seconds more as they gained ground before she leapt up above them. The inmates rushing her crashed together, their pipes and bars striking one another and knocking each other to the ground.

As Selina falls back to the ground she winds up and strikes another would be attacker at the base of his skull, sending him to his knees in pain. With three of the five down, Selina notices the other two are approaching more slowly now, with four other inmates approaching her from behind.

Not holding any punches, Selina dispatched five more of them using everything she had learned over the years. She slid along the floor and struck at enemy knees, bringing them to the ground and keeping them there, and although she would never admit it, she used a few tricks she had learned from the bat to down a few more.

The waves of them were coming at a more organized rate now, and he had taken a hit here and there to her ribs. Her breaths were coming more ragged, and she knew she had to be making an escape soon, or she'd be overwhelmed with the sheer number of them. After all, there was only so long until they all figured out to attack together.

Looking down at her pipe, she realized she'd bent it into nearly a complete circle. She tossed the flimsy metal aside and steeled herself as more of Joker's thugs approached with their weapons raised.

Something fell in front of them, pulling everyone's focus, including Selina's. She watched the metal ball as it clunked to the ground with a heavy thud and rolled around. As soon as she spotted it, she looked to the direction it came from, only to have the wind knocked out of her as something smacked into her.

She could barely register what had happened before the black mass was propelling her upward and onto a gargoyle up far above the floor of the room, which was now filled with smoke. As the shape placed her down onto the massive stone figure, she regained herself.

Batman looked back at her, a clear breathing mask over his mouth and nose. "Don't move." He said before he dove back down to the floor. As he landed, the smoke around him swirled like a vortex. Selina leaned over the edge of the gargoyle and watched as he easily dispatched the thugs who had managed to avoid breathing in the smoke.

As he did so, Selina got a small whiff of the smoke below and noticed quickly that it was knock out gas. She struggled to pull her orange prison top from her torso and wrap it over her mouth and nose. She shivered against the cold stone gargoyle, clad in only her black sports bra up top. Her eyes began to burn from the fumes of it as the smoke rose, she guessed that the room's air circulation as the cause of it.

It wasn't long before he was back with her at the gargoyle. He noticed her makeshift breathing mask and nodded once. Simultaneously they reached for each other and he lowered them back to the floor. Selina made a beeline for the heavy door and pushed it open, stepping outside the smoke-filled room.

As she stepped out into the hallway, she pulled the shirt away from her face and took a few deep breaths, pulling the clean air into her lungs and steadying herself. After a few long seconds of surveying the room, Batman followed her out into the hallway.

"Are you alright?" He asks upon seeing her deep breaths, with as much concern as she supposed he could muster.

She just nodded, feeling a cough tickling her throat. "Just a little dizzy." She admitted after a moment. "That's some strong stuff." She looked to him and saw him examining her torso. She looked down and took notice of the bruises that were already forming from the hits she had taken. Moving quickly, she pulled the orange shirt back on and adjusted her hair.

She tried to force a smile, "Some of us weren't made for extended fights, I'm more of a grab and go kind of girl." Batman didn't say anything, just removed his breathing mask and tossed it aside.

"Can you make it to the exit?" He asks flatly as he raises the gauntlet and begins messing with the screen of it.

Selina let out a dry huff. "That's it?" Batman looked back up at her, she knew it was his way of trying to cut the conversation off.

"I don't have time for an reunion right now." Her eyes flashed with pain for a moment, and he immediately regretted his tone, but he continued, "Joker is in control of Arkham and he made plans involving you." Selina just nods at this statement.

"I know." She says. Batman just stares back at her as she leans her back against a wall. "He had them kill the guards in my block, and blew up my cell to get me out. He wouldn't have done that unless he had something in store for me, not to mention he specifically said so."

"Do you have any idea what he's doing?" Batman asks.

Selina shakes her head. "No idea. I've always made it a policy to stay far away from anything involving Joker. Maybe he's mad I never came to his Rogues' luncheon a few years back…"

Batman turns and begins heading down the hallway away from her. "Get to the exit. Stay out of sight of you can." Selina pushes herself off the wall and begins following him.

"I can help. You know I can."

"No. His plan involves both of us, it would just make it easier for him if we went in together." Selina sighs and stops walking. After a moment, Batman turns back to look at her, noticing for the first time the dark rings under her eyes. "That room has a circulation system big enough to have cleared the room by now. You need to head through there and into the main hall, follow it to the main entrance. Gordon and his men will be across the bridge, just make it there."

"This is bullshit. I can help you."

"You aren't armed, Selina, y ou don't have your suit, either. If you follow me, there will be plenty more fights and you've been out of practice for a while now." His tone was harsh and unforgiving.

Selina gave a small sarcastic laugh. "And whose fault is that?" Batman glared back at her.

"We both know the answer to that." Selina's eyes nearly flinched at the statement.

"I've been in here doing nothing for damn near 3 years, bats, that least you can do is let me help you." The entire encounter, Batman seemed like he was trying to get away from her as fast as possible, and she just couldn't put her finger on why.

"Selina, go find Gordon. If you're in here running loose by the time the SWAT team moves in, they'll consider you an instigator of the riot and extend your sentence." Selina shakes her head, her emotions getting the better of her.

"This is it, isn't it? After all this time, you're just business as usual?" Her voice sounds strained. "I mean, God, bats, I know this isn't the best time, but aren't you happy to see me at all?"

Batman turns and walks down the hallway, towards where Joker was seen heading. "He already has a head start on me, I don't have time for this right now." Selina watches him walk away silently. She rubs her face, collecting herself before she begins walking in the direction of the main hallway, leading to the entrance of Arkham.

* * *

Robin slowly made his way through the main halls of Arkham, and found himself completely alone. The place was eerily quiet, and it put him on edge. A few times he had thought he'd heard a noise, only to use his thermal filter and find nothing there.

It wasn't too long after he'd entered when he called Oracle to reveal his presence in Arkham. "Oracle, come in."

After a few long seconds, Barbara gets on. "I'm here, Robin."

Tim nearly gulps before he speaks, "I've just entered Arkham Asylum, can you get me an idea of where Batman is?"

Back at her clock tower headquarters, Barbara nearly choked. She quickly runs through all of the cameras in Arkham, desperately looking for Tim. She found a camera view showing him walking down the main corridor.

"Robin, turn around and walk out." Her tone was deadly serious.

"Oracle, he needs help on this." Barbara wanted so badly to reach through the comm and smack him.

"Robin, the way to the entrance is still clear, but you need to hurry." Robin stopped walking and shook his head.

"I can help! I can!" Robin tried to say forcefully, hoping she would understand.

A long pause comes from her line. "Robin, so you see that desk next to you?" Robin looks to his side to find one of the intake personnel desks.

"Of course." Robin responds.

"I need you to get behind it, now." Oracle's tone is steady and very dark, as if the matter is urgent. Without hesitating for long, Robin slides over the desk and lands on the other side behind the heavy wooden shape.

After a few moments, Robin peeks out from his hiding spot, only to find nothing is there. He whispers into the comm, "Oracle, what is it?"

Oracle immediately comes back online, "Don't move and stay quiet, okay, Robin? You have to stay still."

Robin waits for a few more moments before he sees a bare foot step around a corner, coming closer to him. A man's voice hums a tune menacingly, and he hears a sharp noise, like a knife scratching against metal.

Oracle tunes back into the comm, "Just hold still, okay Robin? He'll pass and I'll be with you. I won't let him hurt you."

* * *

Back in the bell tower, Barbara frantically tried to contact Batman, but saw on the cameras that he was busy dispatching several inmates in a room filled with a knockout smoke bomb. Barbara opens up a new comm line.

"Nightwing, come in!"

Barbara stares at the screen with the smallest of tears welling up in her eyes as she waits. A long minute later, Dick comes on, "Yeah, I've got you Oracle." His voice is causal.

"I need you at Arkham, now! We have a situation." Barbara watches as Zasz slices Arkham's walls while he walks through the halls. "There's been a mass breakout at Arkham, Joker is loose and Batman went after him. Robin is cornered by Zasz right now and he needs help."

There was a long silence. Oracle watched as Nightwing's GPS signal began moving in the direction of Gotham. "I…have a lot of questions, but I'm on my way."

"Are you on your motorcycle?"

"Yeah."

"I'll send the batwing, I need you here as soon as possible." Barbara turns and types in the location for the batwing.

"You'll have to fill me in on the way." Nightwing says.

"Gladly. Batwing is dispatched." Oracle replies.

* * *

Robin sits in his spot pinned against the desk, listening closely to the sounds of Zasz slashing at the walls.

The sound of a T.V. flickering made Robin's heart jump suddenly. "Come out, come out, little Robin!" Harley's voice squealed. "I know I saw you come in, and right through the front door too!" Robin peeks past the desk to see Zasz heading towards the desk. "If you come out now, Zasz will probably play nice! Ain't that right, Zasz!?"

A large thud makes Robin jump as Zasz stabs the heavy oak desk. "Not likely," he hisses. Robin's skin breaks out into goosebumps as he hears Zasz's open mouth breathing creep closer, as if peering over the desk.

Readying himself, Robin keeps his gaze focused on the spot where Zasz would look over.

"Harley," an unfamiliar voice echoes from down the hallway, "you really need to learn to keep your mouth shut."

Robin listens as footsteps come closer and closer, drawing Zasz away from the desk. "And what the hell are you supposed to be? Tic-tac-toe gone wrong?"

Robin peeks over the desk to see the woman he knows to be Catwoman enter the room, staring at a heavily scarred and shirtless Zasz. Robin's eyes catch sight of the large knife clasped in Zasz's hands.

Zasz laughs darkly.

* * *

_**Author's Note: Hope this was worth the wait. I'll try and get another chapter out in the next few days. I'm also going to be going back and editing this story in minor ways to make it flow better. I've improved as a writer since when I first wrote this and I want to make the previous chapters flow better, so if you get any updates, that's just me editing unless it says new chapter 10.** _

_**Happy New Year everyone, thanks for hanging around!** _


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